Apocalypse now

Osama bin Laden, the world's most vaunted man, who has now vanished, was seen on video tape again on Thursday, claiming the September 11 attack was linked to the Palestinian cause. But millions of moderate Muslims believed that he and his Taliban friend Mullah Muhammed Omar have hijacked Islam as recklessly as the Americans have hijacked Christianity to perpetuate their dominance of the world's wealth and resources. 

The hardline or Texas cowboy-like President, George W. Bush, in the catastrophic aftermath of September 11, angrily though perhaps unwittingly, summed up the scenario when he proclaimed something like a new commandment from the burning bush – "Either you are for American policy or you are a terrorist." Billions of people in the Third World and elsewhere would probably like to join prize-winning author Arundathie Roy in responding to Mr. Bush by saying – "How dare you separate the people like goats and sheep. We are neither for American policy nor are we terrorists."

President Bush, shocked and stunned by the cataclysmic attack on America, has since then been making pronouncements as though he is God's chosen Messiah for the new age or, more devilishly, some kind of god himself. The hardline attitude of the Bush administration orchestrated by conservatives like Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has raised horrible parallels with end-time imagery from the Book of Revelation. It is both difficult and dangerous to interpret the imagery in the Apocalypse. But Chapter 14 speaks of a beast that will emerge to demand that all nations should subscribe to its policies and precepts. Anyone who does not subscribe or worship this beast and does not carry the number of the beast cannot survive in the world. When President Bush declares that "you're either for America or you're a terrorist and we'll hunt you down and kill you", he is putting himself in the position of such a beast.

The subsequent chapters of the Book of Revelation portray the terrible fate of the beast, including plagues, a total destruction of the ozone layer, whereby people will be burnt alive by the sun and an earthquake that blows up everything into nothing. It speaks of a city that rules the whole world and warns how that city would be turned into a catastrophic ball of fire. 

Whatever all that may mean or may not mean, it seems that temporarily or superficially the Bush administration and its main European allies like Britain are achieving their agendas. 

On October 7, the United States launched the most devastating air operation in world history to smoke out its number one enemy Osama bin Laden and his Taliban protectors in Afghanistan. The operation was initially named 'Infinite Justice'. Again it appeared to be a case of George Bush putting himself on the burning bush because religious understanding is that only God can bring infinite justice. Thus the name was changed to 'Enduring Freedom'. 

After about five weeks of day-and-night bombardment of the world's poorest and weakest country and the killing of at least a thousand innocent civilians, the capital Kabul fell on November 13 to the US allies, the Northern Alliance. Within a month, the rest of the country, including the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar also fell and an interim government headed by Pashtun leader Hamid Karzai, was sworn in on December 22. Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, bin Laden and several of his Al-Qaeda members escaped to a mountainous region of Afghanistan but some reports said they have fled to neighbouring Pakistan. With Afghanistan brought under its heel and subscribing to US geo-political interests, President Bush was reportedly considering what the next target should be in his war on terrorism. Analysts had different views ranging from Iraq to Somalia, Yemen or North Korea with administration hawks indicating the battle may go on for years. 

Whatever it means for the poor Third World and even though the world economy is in recession, Santa Claus this year came with the potential of billions of dollars mainly for US arms companies and oil giants. Coinciding with the new dimensions in the so-called war on terrorism, President Bush unilaterally cancelled the historic Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, which Presidents Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev had signed in 1972 to mark the beginning of the end of the cold war. By way of explanations or excuses, the Bush hawks claimed the ABM Treaty was irrelevant or outdated in the face of what they see as a nuclear threat from terrorist or rogue states. Mr. Bush tried to coax or cajole Russian President Vladimir Putin into a mutual agreement on the dismantling of the ABM safeguards, but the Russian leader resisted the pressure and described the US move as a big mistake. So Mr. Bush is going ahead on the fast track to build the innocently labelled nuclear missile defence shield but this revival of Ronald Reagan's star wars – besides taking the world closer to a final holocaust – will mean trillions of dollars in new arms contracts for global corporations which back the Bush administration.

World's biggest debt

Argentina was at one time the darling or the role model of the World Bank/IMF economic policy. But when the tables were turned and the gap between the rich and the poor widened with the world's biggest ever debt of 132 billion dollars, the donor agencies disowned and discarded Argentina. Food riots flared as starving people raided and attacked city centres where they saw vulgar extravagance being flaunted while millions struggled without their basic needs. Supermarkets, chain stores and globalised restaurants like McDonalds were set ablaze in what served as a lesson to the world as to what could happen in blindly following the policies of unbridled globalization. While at least a ground level peace was patched up in Afghanistan, the fallout from the crisis sent India and Pakistan plunging horrifyingly close to what hardliners in both countries were describing as their 'final war'. Since September 11, the equation in the subcontinent – representing almost one fourth of the world's population – changed drastically and dramatically. 

The pieces moved so fast on the chess board that even a Kasparov or a Karpov would not have known what to do or what would happen next. 

Military coup

Quite naturally, India became disturbed, despite a close relationship with the United States, mainly for American trade purposes. But with the fall of the Taliban and the emergence of the pro-Indian Northern Alliance, the equation changed again and Pakistan felt it was being betrayed. 

Parliament attack

While Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee claimed his country was being thrust into a war, Pakistani President Musharraf said Pakistan was ready and able to respond. Reports by Wednesday said Pakistan had launched its biggest mobilization in 30 years and even retired officers were being called back for service. A Christmas Day shootout on the Kashmir border put the two nuclear powers at a flashpoint as the world moved into 2002.

On Christmas Day, Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ provided another biblical horror of horrors in the holiest site. 

Beyond tradition

Since 1948, and especially after the 1967 war, US support for a hardline Jewish policy has been one of the main obstacles to implementing UN Security Council resolutions for justice in the explosive region. Millions of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims watched helplessly over the decades as Israel blatantly pushed its eye-for-an-eye policy. 

When Ariel Sharon took over in Israel and George Bush in the United States to put together a deadly combination, anger towards the Americans turned to hatred as manifested in the twin tower holocaust of September 11.

Is there a way out?

If a self-centred and consequently self-destructive world is still interested, Nobel laureates at a meeting to mark the centenary of the peace Prize provided some practical steps for world crisis management and conflict resolution. Essentially, they insist that without social justice, there will be no real or lasting peace in the world. The insights of inspiring and enlightened personalities like Nelson Mandela, Shimon Peres, John Hume and others in non-political spheres are based not on books or theories but on their practical experience. Their advice is that the world should avoid two extremes – self-centred indifference at one fringe and self-centered fanaticism at the other. Both are dangerous and destructive.

Self-centered indifference basically means an attitude where I am concerned only or mainly about personal gain, benefits, conveniences, comforts and the like. Even if I see some person being ill-treated or brutalized, I am not bothered as long as it does not affect me. Such an attitude of self-centredness and enslavement to self- interest, is eventually self-destructive. It is a fallacy similar to a cell in the body trying to survive on its own. 

At the other extreme is fanaticism or bigotry – basically a form of unbalanced thinking bordering on madness where I suffer from a delusion that my view or perception of a particular issue is the full picture or the whole truth. Thus anyone who does not agree with that picture is marginalised or eliminated. One striking example is Hitler. In some form of mania he believed that his perception of an Aryan supreme race was the full picture for the world. Anyone who did not fit into the picture was first oppressed or marginalised, then butchered as were the six million Jews. Though we may not have many more like him around today, there are lots of pocket Hitlers who believe that their perception is the absolute picture and the whole truth. 

Instead of the two extremes, the Nobel Prize laureates are calling on the world to move towards the middle-path. As a first step towards this, they call for an inner attitude where we not only accept but also respect diversity and different points of view. The diversity could be in terms of religion, race, political or economic outlook. Tragically some distortion in human nature has driven us towards seeking uniformity though mother nature itself is full of wonderful examples of the beauty and power there is through unity in diversity. The human body is the best example. Every part is different, but they accept and respect each other and work in unity for the common good. Every tree or plant and every flower garden get their beauty in diversity and not in uniformity. 

In conflict resolutions or crisis management, the Nobel laureates are calling on the world to move towards dialogue in the spirit of accepting and respecting diversity and differences. We need to build movements and parties that accept, respect and foster this principle of unity in diversity, dialogue and accommodation. 

The course of violence, war and vengeance is much easier because what is built in ten years could be destroyed in one hour. The path of dialogue and openness to diversity requires loads of patience, humility and perseverance. It is easy to destroy but difficult to build. We need to patiently and courageously climb every mountain, search every sea, and perseveringly follow every rainbow until we find our dream of a peace based on justice, equality and equitable distribution of the world's wealth and resources.