Op Ed: Why Is There No Peace And Harmony In The World?

by Khalid Rizvi

Once Dr. Robert Dickson Crane (Former advisor to the late president Richard Nixon)  highlighted in his lecture that the preamble of the American constitution mentioned five purposes that created a union ie 

1. Justice 
2. Domestic Tranquility and peace
3. Security
4. General Welfare
5. Freedom

It is worth mentioning here that sequentially justice is of foremost importance and freedom is a byproduct of JUSTICE.

Henceforth, Justice is the core issue primarily economic justice in the world for peace and tranquility.

Dr.Robert Dickson further highlighted that the concentration of economic power and political power are the two significant causes of evil in the world. He referred to Tayyab Erdogan’s speech at the 73 United Nations General assembly about the wealth gap in the world It is alarming that the sixty richest people are equivalent to more than the wealth of two-thirds of mankind. Further analyzed that the huge gap in wealth is one of the major causes of terrorism.

Over and above, It’s an eye-opening report published by OXFAM International on 17th January 2022 that during the pandemic ten richest people increased their wealth by $1.3 billion a day whereas on the other hand income of 99% of people fell drastically and over 60 million people were forced into poverty. Therefore, extreme inequality in wealth among the people could be termed as economic violence. 

Lets see, What are the other possible causes of no peace and harmony in the world? 

•   British colonialism  and U.S  Imperialism

Eminent Indian economist Professor Utsa Patnik has estimated that Britain Robbed India of $45 trillion between 1765 and 1938 as originally published as the “ legacy of colonialism “ Global Research, 19 December 2018.

Referring article by Gideon Polya, the worst state crime of all is the illegal invasion of another country. “The Americans have invaded 72 countries ( 52 after WW2) as compared to Britsh 193, Australia 85, France 82, Germany 39, Japan 30, Russia 25, Canada 25, Apartheid Israel 12, China 2. The U.S has military personnel in 156 countries and military countries in 75 countries” Thus the world must urgently stand up against U.S state terrorism, U.K state terrorism, French state terrorism, Appartheied Israeli terrorism, Australian state terrorism, Canadian state terrorism, Turkish state terrorism, and Saudi state terrorism. The killing must stop and peace is the only way. 

Its a good initiative that a recent letter signed by Tesla chief Elon Musk and Mustafa Suleyman, demanding that the UN ban the development and use of autonomous “killer robots”

• Illegal occupation of Israel and India 

Peace or tranquility in the world is linked with the longstanding conflict between Israel with Palestine, and proxy wars among countries like the U.S, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Israel in Middle East countries for illegitimate control of resources, land, and oil need to be resolved by International human rights organizations and the United Nations based on Human rights. and morality.

In context with the illegal occupation of Israel, It is ridiculous that any religion or scripture is sufficient for the demarcation or owning land and even encourages massacre, genocide, and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of the land.

 It may lead to chaos and anarchy in other parts of the world if grabbing land obsessed with religious scriptures. What is the moral position of the United States in supporting the illegal occupation of Israel, the genocide of Palestinian, forced eviction of indigenous Palestinians from their Home?

On the other hand, India adopted the same pattern to occupy Kashmir as Israel against the right of self-determination and democratic rights of the Kashmiri people via revocation of article 370.

Referring to Aljazeerah dated 16th January 2022 “Genocide Watch” warns about the genocide of Muslims in India in context with all communal and divisive tactics of the Modi government, including the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The CAA bill, introducing religion as a differentiator blatantly discriminates against Muslims and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

• Industrialization and deforestation 

to the extent of corporate greed impacted the ecosystem and its backlash as a climate change was realized in different parts of the world. There’s a threat of food shortage in the world due to more industry and less agriculture for profit motives.

• War-making industry 

It’s important to refer article written by “ Sarah Lazar” on April 9 . 2022, that the weapon industry exploits Ukrain war as profits pile up and are also termed as a war-making industry. She also adds that  Weapons makers have spent $2.5 billion on lobbying over the past two decades. With this fact that during major wars, millions of people starve from the loss of commercial infrastructure, millions of people are killed, and millions of people are displaced and torn from their homes as refugees. 

Benjamin Franklin once said, “There is no such thing as a good war or a bad peace.

• Powerful countries control Media 

to shape the opinion of the people as per their own agenda, Hence the free expression of opinions and thoughts as a basic right of the human specie is compromised by the powerful weapons of propaganda and tightly controlled messages of fake news.  

• IMF & World bank 

loaned to corrupt politicians as the ruler of underdeveloped countries on behalf of the people which is not used for the enhancement of growth of the country so that they can emerge on their feet.

• The United Nations 

needs to be reformed to support the weak and oppressed people of the world at an optimum level and also to revisit the unjust veto power limited to only five powerful countries out of approximately 200 different member states of the United Nations.

In a nutshell, with this fact that peace and tranquality is the byeproduct of justice in terms of social justice, political justice and economic justice.  

Therefore, In order to attain true happiness, prosperity, and peace allover the world (a global village), it is required to take initiative of  reforming United Nations by increasing the number of security council members having veto power in accordance with  the total number of members and also emphasised the role of  International human rights organizations to settle human right issues regardless of any biases like nationalism, race, color, creed, ethnicity, and religion.