Earth in 2011: Humans and Nature

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      Disasters. Man-made and natural. None of the two are new, they are age old words but they should now be said with a lot more fear. Everywhere you look there is despair that hangs in the air with humans being the rope and the devil himself being the Hangman. Egypt, Tunisia, Libya are the most recent and the most intense examples of man-made disasters. It was man who created the system of ruler. It is a time tested one but it also has its negatives. These negatives are mostly the result of poor leadership. Unlike the earlier days, now a days the leaders give a lot more importance to their own state of well-being.

      The best example of this sort of leadership is that of the infamous Col. Gaddafi. Every news paper has something to report about his banks accounts which are spread all over the world and which the world powers are doing their desperate best to freeze but then we, civilians, don't know the ground reality. We are simply the infant which is fed by the mother, the government being the mother here. Educated, politically aware and smart though we are but it is only those handful of people in the villages, rural areas or the not so developed regions who are asking the questions. What are we doing then? Isn't it our responsibility too? Being responsible global citizens shouldn't we offer help to our brothers who are struggling to achieve some sense of democracy?

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      We aren't doing that but how is it that even with so many educated people in the world, individuals like Gaddafi are able to get away after killing civilians or rebels as he may have labelled them. The US which is the supposed 'Big Brother' of the international community is having trouble in trying to find a quick and efficient solution to the problem. They are trying to get NATO to play a bigger part because they have got their 'own bigger problems' such as the one in Afghanistan. There are about 200 countries in the world and yet only one (read USA) is staking its claim to be a 'Moral Superpower'. Of course it is a claim that is resisted by many.

      US has its own self-interests to take care of first, the most important being OIL. Hence, we can term that claim of theirs as questionable, but who doesn't want to look after their self-interests? China is playing brother to Pakistan to counter India, USA is backing South Korea to counter North Korea. There are many more examples of countries getting involved in the bigger picture to secure their interests. However, what does this lead to? An Afghanistan, if I may say so. It was the US that declared war on Afghanistan with its allies to get the world rid of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. A praise-worthy venture indeed but what happened? Did the dream come true? No. All that remains in Afghanistan is a slightly crippled Taliban getting its money from poppy cultivation opposed by a few warlords here and there.

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      Thus it was a failed operation. It was an operation that cost the tax-payers billions of dollars each day that it continued, yet it still continues. Now we hear that the US is going to slowly and steadily pull out of there. What then? The only thing that is stopping the Taliban from overthrowing the decadent government is the presence of the US troops. Thus, we are heading back to the almost similar past scenario. A half-hearted operation won't do the trick and this is what leaders have realized and hence, we can see the rebels surviving the Libyan Civil War.

      The entire middle-east is in turmoil currently. Each day media reports about protests in different countries. The fight for freedoms has spread like a wildfire. What I feel is that the time has come when military or other dictatorship would be shown the door from the entire middle-east and people would prosper in a free middle-east. Yet there is another aspect of human life that we haven't explored yet. And that is the natural aspect. I wrote about power hungry despots but we are still left with Mother Nature, a topic so vast that even if I type a billion blogs, I won't be able to explain it entirely and do it the justice that it deserves.

NATURE

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      In the last couple of months, we saw earthquakes, horrendous ones. We saw New Zealand suffer and we also saw Japan in despair, a situation that is hadn't been in since the world war. What is all this that is happening all around us? Revenge by mother earth? Is this the beginning of the end? These are some of the questions that 'pollute' the dreams of many. What I feel is that this is not the end. It is merely the start of a new beginning. The earth is starting the process of cleansing. It is cleansing itself from all the harm that we have done and when it does so we will go back to the golden age.

      The process would be tough on all of us. But it is needed. I don't know what it would be like but it would certainly involve earth releasing colossal amounts of energy lying dormant in its dark interiors. Thus we may see a rise in the number of earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunami but it is all for the good.

      There are many more aspects that need to be analysed but I can't do so in one post so hence I will write another post about this and it will be posted on the next Sunday.

TO BE CONTINUED....