Whether You Like It or Not

"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!” —the words from the speech passionately delivered at the UN Climate Action Summit 2019 by a 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg must have shaken the global community out of its deep stupor. The leaders of the so-called flourishing countries, who have turned a blind eye to the deteriorating climate situation with the passing of time, must have paid attention to the intensely brewing voice against their perilous policies towards the environment that they often tried to trample upon.

It defies comprehension that despite enough reports of an ensuing climate change havoc, the global leaders are busy building castles in the air for the eternal economic growth, instead of taking concrete measures towards mitigating the tragic effects of climate change. It is immensely unfortunate that the growing climate concerns of the global community are confined to the dialogues, hollow narratives and unfulfilled & abandoned goals set at the several International Climate Forums. 

As the years roll by, the ecosystem is, gradually and conspicuously, being impoverished, and this fact is corroborated by the ravaging natural havocs occurring and recurring across the globe in the form of constant cyclones and other disasters and, for that matter, the melting glaciers. 

Now, the question that arises out of the whole picture is that will just the high-toned dialogues and inspiring speeches about conserving the environment by global leaders at the International Forums suffice? The simple and precise answer is ‘NO’. We cannot let our successors bear the brunt of our disservice to the ecosystem and we must give a break to our ‘fairy tales of eternal economic growth’ and spare a thought for our environment. However, that is a very big ‘but’.   

Provided such callous attitude towards the severe environmental problems like climate change, a large number of young climate activists have upped the ante against climate change atheists at the international forums, with the latest being the UN Climate Action Summit 2019. The Global Environmental Conservation Icon, Greta Thunberg rallied a massive protest with fifteen other young activists from 12 different countries, joining her to file a complaint in the United Nations against 5 countries for not walking their talk and adopting indifferent stance towards climate change. 

Unsurprisingly, the complaint embodies a clutch of allegations of a conspicuous child rights violation by these 5 countries by turning a blind eye to the grave environmental issues like climate change. Probably, this revolution appears to be the first of its kind where the young environmental activists led by Greta Thunberg articulated the world in a precise manner that tampering with the ecosystem today will cost an arm and a leg to tomorrow's generation and shed light upon the real picture of the ensuing climate crisis.

Despite the environmentalists expressing their deep concerns over gradual climate warming, and seamlessly, warning about the growing carbon emissions by the world’s leading economies, the Global Climate Institutions seem reluctant to recognise the symptoms, let alone treating the malaise.

Perhaps that indifferent attitude of the world leaders compelled the millions of young climate activists to lead a protest to make themselves heard and that, significantly, led to the organisation of Global Climate Summit 2019. Wrapped in the clouds of environmental uncertainties, the world witnessed another silver lining in those clouds in UN Climate Summit with the formation of new group pioneered by India and Sweden, aiming to transform large Greenhouse Gas emitting industries into the low-carbon emitter. 

Taking into account the international community’s decades-old impotence in figuring out an infallible method to put a significant end to climate change, the daunting challenge that stares at this newly-formed group is, whether it would be capable enough to make a big difference? Moreover, beyond this, isn’t the ongoing and upcoming environmental crisis raise questions on the competence of the existing Global Forums for Climate Change that whether they themselves are capable enough to calm the intensely growing concerns of our younger generations? 

No matter the international community takes cognizance of this or not, the revolution has been set off, the voices are growing more energetic, and young passion has been fuelled and that reflects in her vehement speech, “You are failing us. But young people are starting to understand your betrayal … We will not let you get away with this … The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.”

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The Undone Deal

US President Donald Trump is, on the world stage, seen as an unpredictable leader and known for his intransigence that reflects in his dogmatic decisions. Usually, it takes only a single tweet for him to create lasting chaos in the global arena, be it a twitter war with North Korean leader Kim Jon Un or withdrawal from several crucial pacts like Paris Climate Agreement, JCPOA, to name a few. Trump’s out-of-the-blue and, sometimes, whimsical decisions, often, catch the global community off guard and leave them scratching their head.

The US President’s move to departure from Afghanistan peace deal came as the latest in the series when Trump took everyone by surprise. President Trump took US out from a yet-to-be-formed peace deal with Afghan-Taliban, leaving Afghanistan and, indeed, the whole region hanging in the balance. Now, the Taliban is out on a bombing spree, killing hundreds of people in Afghanistan.

The nearer Afghanistan’s Presidential elections are approaching, the higher Taliban’s scale of violence is clocking, which appears to terrify Afghan cities with suicide bombings like anything, and creating the fear & trembling without which not even a single day passes by.

The bombardments targeted at Schools, Hospitals, Government establishments, Police and Military Camps and even American Embassy, points to Taliban’s preparation scale that sends out a message loud and clear that it is all set to create mayhem in the already war-ravaged Afghanistan. But, for the US when its own embassy is targeted, more than anything else it's a matter of prestige. The US military too is giving an equal and aggressive response. A few days ago, a US military drone attack claimed 20 innocent Afghan lives.

When bulls fight, crops suffer. Here, the sufferers are the innocent people of Afghanistan, being sandwiched between the US and Taliban’s decade-old undying war of domination. After the recent so-called peace deal with US ended up in vain, Taliban is now out, exploding its frustration on common Afghan people and leaving Aghan streets and homes teeming with crises, born out of human injuries, loss and deaths.

In this backdrop, the question facing Afghanistan and, perhaps, the whole region is how Afghanistan’s establishment is to conduct the fair elections which will be far from the unscrupulous meddling of Taliban. Expressing his sorrowful concerns, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has stated that ''every Afghan citizen has the right to live in an atmosphere free of fear and violence.'' But, in true sense, even this international organisation does not have a panacea to this malaise.

The experts are of the view that if the US had not burned their bridges with Taliban and backed off from the soon-to-be-established deal, then Afghanistan could have breathed a little easier and it did not have to suffer what it is reeling through today. But, the killing of one US soldier upended the years-long negotiations, putting the final nail in the coffin to end the US-Taliban peace talks in vain, and US exited from the said peace negotiations allowing Afghanistan to become a hotbed of terror bombings.  

However, last year, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani took a significant step by recognising Taliban as a political party and freeing up its militants held in incarceration. Meanwhile, the peace talks in Qatar went on, in which a gamut of issues was discussed that resulted in nothing. Against this backdrop, when the peace talks held in Moscow down the line, the former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai was invited but Afghan Government was not included following Taliban’s stance that it will forge an agreement with America only if the elections in Afghanistan are suspended.

And, this is how the spirit of peace negotiations vanished somewhere in a tugging war of self-obsessed politics and intransigence. It is worth saying that the Taliban’s pig-headed attitude is among the major reasons which has turned Afghanistan into the battle-ground of today.

More than anything, the timely need for all the concerned stakeholders is to lend an ear to the common Afghanis and hear their painful cries and their grieving hearts which are begging for peace. In order to calm their sobbing hearts, the two main negotiators US and Taliban must come together, as it takes two to tango, and leave their political differences and vested interests apart.

Afghanistan Government too needs to put a brake to its celebrations triggered by the collapse of the peace deal with the Taliban. All concerned parties must sit together and introspect what actually have they achieved in 18 years of constant war, and for that matter how many more lives would it take for them to restore peace in the region, if at all.

A dream home in nature's lap

Wrapped in the clouds of life’s uncertainties, the human, his entire life, keeps longing for a silver lining in those clouds, and that is called ‘Peace’. Beyond just a word, Peace is the fulcrum of everything that the human is capable of achieving. I have no interest in Etymology, but am sure to some extent that the word peace would have been formed with a view to encompass the pristine beauty of nature. Hence, it is worth saying that the nature and peace are, undeniably, two inseparable sides of the same coin. 

A dream home embellished with an ingraining amalgamation of peace and nature, may probably be bristle with that phlegmatic sense, which one may look out for. Surrounded with pretty palm trees nestled with Verginia Creeper, the lawn will perfume the entire courtyard with its light fragrance. And, in that courtyard stands the handmade Bamboo Mudda table with two chairs, made with the same material as table, standing close enough so that one can relax on one chair with both his feet lying on the table in crossed shape. 

Now, a small and cozy drawing room with a big window, and on that window hangs the light-coloured curtains. The radiant sunlight pierces through those curtains and scatters into the entire room. The room gets filled up with the abundant sunshine which illuminates every nook of the drawing room as if it no longer needs the electricity. From the same window, you can hear the sweet melodies of bird-chirping which submerges you into a different world whence you never want to return. 

At dawn, when you come out of the house, the fresh and chilly air blows from directly in front and touches your skin, apparently giving your flesh that soothing natural spa, calming your body like anything. After the natural spa of fresh and soothing air, when you move into the house the noise of book (lying on the table near the window) pages flipping itself due to the strong wind blowing through the window, inviting you to spend some time sitting on the edge of the window and begin your day with reading at least four to five pages of that book. And this is how I'm gonna organise my dream home.