- by Hom Paribag
Just like last year, the UN General Assembly came and went. When the Assembly was held last year, it carried the experiences of 2007. This year, though, the world is very different to the world of 2008. In 2008, the recession was still a gossip between executives of big firms, or politicians, or financial professionals who were slumbering through the hangovers of success and bad politics infused by expensive champagne.
In the UN General Assembly of 2008, George Bush, who was then the President of the USA, would appear with his witch-like spiky ears and cocked up gaffes. He would snarl about his position as a World Leader. He would sniff the good leaders, according to him, from the world where peace and prosperity of the ordinary people would be at stake 24/7 and people would die either in a bomb explosion or destroyed cities or in natural calamities. And still the UN Convention would carry on maintaining its status quo of the world leaders appearing and crowding in the wounded city of New York for a few days.
But, the General Assembly of 2009 was very different. It had Barack Obama, the new esteemed President of the USA and the increasingly confident UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, and some other interesting leaders i.e. the Russian President, Binyamin Netanahu, Mahmood Abbas and many others.
At a glance, the experiences of the people in the world today are different to the experiences of people in 2008. While those experiencing are the same people who had experienced the world some ten years ago to last year, some in the meanwhile are not alive in this world to experience what really has happened today and the world tomorrow in a bird’s eye view.
In 2009, whilst the recession came and almost gobbled the basic confidence of man in the world, in the world, in the West it left a few extremely lucky, while the majority are now in a financial meltdown. Even though the nation states are not at war today the way they were after the 1930s recession, today’s world leaders still spent their time presenting ‘feel good’ talk about the problems of the world that still exist and repeat every year.
The USA has a new fine thinking president. Russia also has a moderately confident president and China, Brazil, India and other EU leaders as well as some good behaving Asian and Middle Eastern (except Gaddafi), and some African leaders who all came to exchange their business cards spending millions of dollars of their tax-payers’ money.
Perhaps the talk about global warming, in preparation for the Copenhagen conference in October 09, may have gone some way to finding solutions to the problems faced by the world and its inhabitants.
In 2009, the world is different to that of 2008. We’re at the end of the time of the current world. The way we do business will not be valid in five years time. Technology, especially the Internet and mobile phones, will be repugnant then since these have already nullified human abilities to interact and deal with each other. We will have natural calamities and diseases that we won’t understand what to do with.
This is the scenario we will all face in time. Yet the UN General Assembly could not present any new ideas to the world this year either. Much of the time was spent on the same old issues of Israel and Palestine and Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The world still has issues which must be solved from the last century. The UN General Assembly must present solutions to deal with problems of the future, based on our present and past. Will the world’s brilliant scientists, inventors, thinkers, financiers, and innovators have the chance to be there, escorted by their Presidents, Prime Ministers or Heads of State to find solutions to our problems? What’s the point of hearing the same clichés and cooked up ideals that the politicians speak on the platforms of the media over and over again almost on a daily basis?
World and the leaders! It is time for a change. Don’t you agree?
How Much Does Man Need To Talk?
Sometimes I contemplate and realise I wish I were a scientist. I would definitely have liked to be an inventor of medicine that would cure diseases and end the suffering of people like magic. But I’m not a scientist, so my wishes remain just wishes.
Recently I’m beginning to ponder why human beings need to talk so much? What would it do to us if we did things without talking?
You can guess, as I did, that there’s no way anything could have been done if we didn’t talk to ourselves. Therefore I always respect those who can only talk to themselves and do things, i.e. the hearing and speaking impaired.
Though they are seen as disabled by most in our society, I find they are more able and real than we people who can talk and chirp.
These days human beings are addicted to talking and are not able to do things. Maybe we have destroyed the notion of our expression and abilities to do things quietly with the excessive usage of mobile phones.
When I see party leaders talking at party conferences,I gasp at how much they say that we don’t need to hear. And then they come out and again begin to talk. They talk- in party conferences, in press conferences, on Youtube, in Parliament, on TV everywhere and always. I’m sure they even talk when they eat or in their sleep! For, they always talk every where, every minute and every moment of their life.
This observation makes me wonder, what is the power of talking itself and how much of what we express, and plan by talking, do we really do? Is talking really the beginning of everything we do? I think about the way one falls in or out of love when we talk. Perhaps we need to urge politicians to talk less, work more, even though we know they love wasting their time talking- time that could be spent doing things that really matter and improving the lives of ordinary people. Let’s talk the talk, but also do the work!
Lets Have Rights For Emotions!
Putting aside the emotional calamities that celebrities face in their personal lives, this world presently seems to be a good place for celebrities, for those who have money and for those who can understand the 360 degree ups and downs of life, yet keep up the good work they do no matter what happens in their private lives.
Nowadays, people are more keen to understand the dynamics and dimensions of human emotions and their power to make or break the other areas of life.
Some decades ago, people fought for life and values on the basis of bipolarity of world politics- i.e. communism versus capitalism.
I remember as a child in the 70s and 80s, even in the Himalayas, every adult I came across had a sense of purpose in life. They had peaceful lives and set objectives for everyone. In the West people were enjoying newly obtained freedoms as the invention of material goods led to higher living standards. In the East, North, Middle East, and South people just wanted to wake up each day for another new day. This way the world was moving on - people felt that they were people. Science and technology kept on doing greater things. Material goods became easily available, and, in my opinion, the world became happy-golucky.
So many leaders came and went. New sets of values on human rights, liberties and equal opportunities were introduced. After the fall of communism, people began to focus on rights related issues and our emotional and spiritual well being. Goods and physical, scientific achievements were introduced for our physical well being.
Now we’re in a different world. We have obtained so many material goods that even mobile phones and the Internet can’t please us. Whether it is in Alaska or Fiji, South Asia or Africa, Internet and mobile phones are working like hornets, flying everywhere as if they no longer have a habitat. The shallow usage of these devices has often left people’s emotions high and dry.
Yet the real problem of life in the developing to the developed world remains a little improved. For example, Gerri Halliwell, UN Goodwill Ambassador for Women, was in Kathmandu last month to give a lecture to delegates. Gerri was so happy and contented as she spoke, trying to convince the delegates that women must be empowered and violence against women must end. That was very much appreciated by the people, both men and women, of Nepal and the messages of this kind must increase and spread all over the world.
However I wonder whether Gerri felt the same way, and as powerfully, once she
returned to London to be with her daughter. She was a single mother for a long time until she found her current partner. Here in London, I have heard that women have fewer issues with violent men than they used to, but more issues with expressing their emotions. So am I right to request that the world should start campaigns for the rights of emotions exactly the same way we have rights for humans, for no human is a human until s/he is able to have healthy emotions, for emotions is what makes man better or worse, depending on the way one is able to express their emotions!
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Hom Paribag is editor and founder of Society Today Magazine
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