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War and Peace


The Global Peace Index 2024 reports that 92 countries are currently engaged in conflicts beyond their borders, marking the highest number since World War II. The latest conflict between India and Pakistan is not included in that statistic.

What do these wars achieve? As Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote, “The old woman will keep waiting for her martyred son. That girl will wait for her beloved husband. And those children will wait for their heroic father.” The leaders will shake hands, he said. History will be rewritten. New heroes will be born. But the ordinary citizens pay the price for every war.

Wars kill people, first of all. World War II killed 70 to 85 million people. Millions of people are displaced by wars. The present Ukrainian crisis alone has displaced more than 14 million people from their homes, 6 million of them are refugees in other countries. Famine and starvation are the next problems. The endless civil war in Yemen, for example, has driven 17 million people to food insecurity.

The collapse of infrastructure is all too obvious. Many of my fellow country-people must have watched on their TV screens how houses and other buildings came crashing down to dust in the past few days both in India and Pakistan. Environment bleeds too. Forests burn, rivers are polluted, and a huge lot of toxic remnants are left behind.

A staggering portion of human creativity, intellectual energy, and material resources is consumed by war. Just imagine that: we spend a huge proportion of our wealth, potential, and resources for killing one another. In 2023, the human world spent $2.4 trillion on defence. This amount could fund global education, eliminate hunger, and provide clean water many times over.

As Pope Francis wrote in his autobiography, “If no weapons were manufactured for a year, the world’s hunger would completely end; one single day without military spending would save thirty-four million people…”

Imagine the world using science and technology for good purposes instead of developing sophisticated weapons and drones and war-robotics… We could prevent so much crime by using the surveillance systems in better ways than for wars.

As Albert Einstein said, “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything, save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” We need to change our modes of thinking. Pope Francis put it this way: “We must replace the cowardice of arms with the courage of reconciliation.”

Reconciliation ultimately depends on courageous leadership—leaders willing to take political risks and challenge hardline narratives. Leaders willing to let go certain pet themes like nationalism and religion.

Comments

  1. Hari OM
    Thank you... for the stats, the courage to call it out. I look at our line up here in the UK and yet again... despair... but at least, for now, we are not under the threat of broken buildings, limbs, lives... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wars are to feed the egos of the powerful. Saddening,

    ReplyDelete
  3. “If no weapons were manufactured for a year, the world’s hunger would completely end; one single day without military spending would save thirty-four million people…”

    I mean, that sounds good. I wish it were true. But sadly, if no weapons were manufactured for a year, they would find something else to do with that money rather than feed people. Too many people are destructive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Too much negativity and violence. That's the sad truth.

      Delete
  4. Thanks for the morning Meditation. A very soulful and elevating piece... Added beauty is that I am reading it, while sojourning under your very roof. To mirror and echo the Palestinian poet, I quote Tennyson" The nobles fought, the clergy prayed and the people paid.."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was our pleasure to have you with us.

      Tennyson is so apt!

      Delete

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