Writing after a pretty long time but the events of early morning
galvanized me into expressing some of my views.
Its really sad what happened today and in a broader scope whats happening in the world- with respect to the 'war on terror' and the whole west (mainly US/UK) vs so called terrorists. It is indeed a problem but my view ( along with a major proportion of the general public around the world) is that the approach taken by the US is highly myopic and dangerous.
War can never be an instrument for peace and love. If the US thinks that it can go all around the world and kill all the 'terrorists' then, in my view, it is in for a rude shock! Can a son who has lost his father or a man who's family has been killed without any reason actually dig deep into his heart and forgive the people who did this, however noble the alleged motives are. These people will spend every second of their lives hating the guts of the west. So instead of reducing the problem, war only helps it propogate and multiply. An eye for an eye leads to a world which just can't see.
The only solution is peace, prosperity, growth: Economics. Bring as many people as possible into the mainsteam. Make them realise what the world/ life has to offer. If nothing else get people addicted to material goods, make their lives busy with the headache of day to day problems- paying bills, supporting families. Then lets see how many have time to go out and 'kill' people. I know its not that simple, but it seems a much better alternative to me. The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman claims that there has never been a war between two countries which have operating branches of McDonalds. When poeple get busy with their work and the economy functions at a good capacity, war becomes too expensive. Some may argue that so called terrorism is not actually a war rather its a clash of ideaology, but my claim- get people occupied and show them alternatives and suddenly the supply of unlimited manpower will dry up. There may be a few who would not be charmed, but they would'nt wield much power.
Other news: Saudi Arabia says that it wont' be able to match the oil demands of the west in the future say 10-15 years from now. This is a big thing! Even now the world economy is struggling with exhorbitant oil prices of $60 a barrel!. The time has come when the world has to SERIOUSLY consider alternative sources of energy. Why I saw SERIOUSLY is because in my view the efforts untill now have been nothing but meek with most of the work done by small scale researchers and companies. The good thing about high oil prices is that this will make unconventional and new technologies economically viable. The G8 summit this week is also focussing on Climate Changes due to green house effect and this should add to the momentum of the 'going green' movement. One thing for sure, technologically we are not far behind- its the leadership and initiative that is missing. Given a correct framework and some encouragements, alternative sources of energy can compete with oil.
