The governance of any State or a country is not child’s play. And so be it!
We can summarize as to which countries of the world have been doing well on the governance front and others who till date have been reeling under conflicts. Those nations which are constantly bearing the brunt of the conflicts have failed their people in providing good governance and instead have enriched themselves with greed and corruption.
We can recall how the world had witnessed the two major world wars in the past –first World War 1 from 1914 to 1918 and World War 2 from 1939 to 1945. It painfully reminds us how the twin cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were hit with those devastating atom bombs on 6th and 9th of August 1945 by the US. The destruction, pain and agony of the people were unimaginable. And ever since then, the world was still struggling to come to terms and establish some sort of a new world order. It took decades of years to come to terms with each other of such inhuman actions of the super power on the innocent people of Japan. But now, after many decades, Japan today stands tall with peace and harmony amongst most of the countries of the world.
Next, the persecution and genocide of the Jews in 1941. And during those subsequent four years; millions of European Jews were killed and gassed to death by the Nazis and their collaborators. And this mass murder became known as the holocaust.
Ever since then, the world has been witnessing a number of wars and conflicts amongst the nations either for sheer greed to power or to loot and plunder their own country. Successive governments in power betrayed the trust of their peoples. And in the bargain innocent people were forced to lay down their lives for no valid reasons whatsoever, bringing pain and agony.
Today, when most of the nations pray for peace in their respective countries, the powerful nations try to assert themselves with their superiority. The only good sign that was seen for some past one or two decades was the signs of ending of the cold war between Russia and the US. And ever since then, the world kept moving ahead with a huge sigh of relief.
But practically, today once again we still witness a number of hot spots in every continent which at times lie low. But I am afraid, during the course of time these hot spots are bound to explode into full blown war and results in deaths of innocents.
As the world moved on, there were conflicts galore in Africa, Niger & Congo where leaders play their dirty power games. Then there are conflicts in Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, DR Cong, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sudan and Yemen to name a few. The ultimate sufferers again are the innocent people of these regions for lack of good governance. They give no chance for lasting peace in the regions.
A peep into history tells us how the world had witnessed yet another bloody conflict from 1968 to 1998 in Northern Ireland which they then called as ‘Troubles’, thus bringing pain and bloodshed to the innocent communities. That conflict was between the Protestant Loyalists and Roman Catholic Nationalists or the Unionists.
Then there was a messy and hateful conflict which the world witnessed was the Gulf War between Iraq and Kuwait from August 1990 to January 17, 1991 which kept the world on tenterhooks.
Earlier in the year 1979 the world witnessed the great Iranian Revolution or the so called Islamic Revolution where it culminated in the overthrow of Pahlavi Dynasty (Shah of Iran) by the then exiled Ayotollha Khomeini. That was again because of the discontent with the Shah’s governance or his misrule. The overrunning of the US Consulate by the militants and taking a number of hostages gave headache to the super power, theUS. And ever since then, the Iranians committed themselves as slaves of the Khomeini regime but of late it is seen they are turning hostile towards the ruler. Yet another revolution may be in the offing in due course of time due to trampling upon human rights and lack of freedom of speech. The women’s movement has shown their frustrations in the recent past. Here again, killing of innocent demonstrators have shown the world how power hungry the regime is.
The world also witnessed how Afghanistan kept the world on the boil when Talibans unceremoniously made forays into Afghanistan and established their own rule of law by sheer dictats. Here again the super power US, played their role and allowed the Taliban to return and handed them the power on a platter against the peoples’ wishes. Today, the same Afghanistan is reeling under the mis-governance, earthquakes where thousands of people are made homeless.
The Russian invasion in Ukraine tells yet another sorry tale of the conflicts around the world. The greed for power and annexation of territory has been exponentially exposed by another super power Russia. The massive funds outpouring from friendly countries would have been sufficient to tame the world hunger of countries reeling under food shortages.
The conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine is the longest conflict going on. The world has been helplessly watching to fix the core issue but in vain. Before Hamas could come into the picture, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was in the forefront of their struggle under the leadership of Yasser Arafat. Enough blood has been shed and thousands of lives have already been lost.
But today as we are witnessing live the ongoing conflict turning into a war between Israel and Hamas, the world is facing a daunting task to bring peace in this region. Meantime harrowing scenes can be seen of destruction and thousands of the innocent people getting killed, thousands injured and others seeking shelter.
The war after all does not distinguish between a fighter and a civilian when thousands of rockets are fired upon each other’s territory. But here, Hamas has been accused of the most heinous massacre of the Israelis. And the end result is that the innocent Palestinians have to bear the brunt of this biggest blunder of Hamas.
The need of the hour for all of us is to pray for all these regions so that peace returns at the earliest.
