From The portal of United Nations
This is a new narrative, in a new world order, purportedly from the portals of the United Nations to make a case for the world,
Sony’s Akio Morita’s reaction as a twenty-four-year-old youngster to the Japanese defeat at the hands of Americans in world war II, created a reactor of innovation. Japan had never lost a war in its history and this was the moment for introspection. “We might as well give up our research right now. If the Americans can build Atomic Bombs, we must be too far behind” was his advice. Over the next few days, passing through the ruins and cities it became evident to him that if Japan were to resurrect itself, it would do so entirely by building a new society based on a new mindset. This was a lateral approach.
The secret to Japan’s success is coded in their DNA, their Ikigai or the reason for being, that is not vested in any holy book or commandment. It is invested and ingrained in their commitment and honour to themselves foremost.
Such is the impact of just one word: Ikigai. Today, Japan with 127 million population and a GDP of $ 5.75 Trn, is the third largest economy by nominal GDP. Its per Capita GDP of $ 50200 compared with US at $ 51240.00, UK at $ 39800.00, China at $8130.00 and India at 2140.00, is an example of Mind over Matter.
It is a nuclear state with nuclear energy infrastructure that makes it capable of constructing nuclear weapons at will. Instead it chose to embrace its own enemy, the US and flourished with its demilitarization under the protection of the United States' nuclear umbrella within the NATO framework. Has this transformation come about through the possession of nuclear arms of which Japan has none?
In spite of France and UK having nuclear arms, can they ever challenge Germany or encroach her land? US and China have ICBM’s. Will they ever use them to bring down each other? Very unlikely. It is only when a country is superior to the other in its industry, its quality of manufacture, its labour, its commerce, its human values, its passion and its love for fellow citizens, that it will be in a position to challenge the world. ‘I am nuclear. Don’t play with me’ is an argument devoid of teeth and utterly misplaced.
Recently Nepal changed the contours of its map to include Indian villages to its side, even justifying its action by citing our reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir last year. The same holds true for Bangladesh, another of our neighbour. Why did our nuclear capability not act as a deterrent in these cases? All this in the face of R.I.P nuclear. How glaring is this example to point to how UnClear is nuclear.
The leadership of countries needs to design a new concept of nations based on modalities for exchnage of ‘L’ove, ‘A’mity, ‘T’rade, ‘E’mpathy, ‘R’esources, ‘A’ppreciation, through its ‘L’eadership. It is time to find a L.A.T.E.R.A.L ikigai rather than eyeballing vain greed over a no-man’s land. Here lies the case to counter the intimidation through arsenal with intervention that is lateral.
The corona virus has shaken the very foundations of life on this planet and the attendant economies that never had the opportunity to look beyond their noses, that is until now. The Gods too; seem to have shut their doors upon the charades and mindless rituals parcticed by all religions at all the temples, churches, mosques et al.
There are almost 14000 warheads collectively with the Nuclear-armed countries, according to a report published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Russia, US, France, UK, China, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea have all nuclear weapons. In fact, Russia and the US hold 90% of all nuclear warheads.
Do nuclear weapons prevent wars between countries that possess them? Must the countries that do not have them fear those that have them? The Guardian, in 2018, reported that though nuclear deterrence will continue to dominate international relations, there is no proof it ever worked, nor that it ever will. It is a case of mere sound and fury signifying nothing.
Is it not ironical that we use weapons and warheads for ensuring peace? Can peace and stability be ensured by the threat of mutually assured destruction? Are we living in a world of positive worry and negative hope? Indeed, a complete paradoxical perception of the world of experiences we have created for ourselves.
Our world has flourished with its produce, services, industry, trade, crafts and people, all adding upto its culture and traditions. We make a case for them. We make a case for removing the large inequities of the world.
It is not Kevin Carter who killed himself after photographing the vulture and the girl in Sudan barely half a mile away from the camp that had food. In that picture lay the demise of the conscience of this august house; the United Nations. If symbols it is, that make sovereigns, brands and flags, the disowning of that responsibility for the death of that girl is something that we seek to know, if we are willing to atone for. If we agree we don’t ask for a show of hands, we ask for us to bow our heads and reflect.
In a world that largely comprises of innocent people, to draw them into a rhetoric of religion, power and greed and lead that procession is not the sign of a national leadership that UN should look for. The Human Development Index needs to succeed beyond the utopian eloquence that it espouses and effuses. There is need to develop a unique audit that establishes not just a ladder of ineuquities in its various rankings, but identify mechanisms to identify an even distribution of equities using WTO to create levellers.
If that were not to be, I ask if Pulitzer must truly divest itself of its own honour to have glorified death without taking into account their own Ikigai or purpose of life, for how could you Prize a picture and not make a case for the redemption of Sudan.
We have to find a new narrative in this new world faced with a new pandemic and perhaps help her get strong to face another one that may strike too. It is time to draw a basic or a modest model of progress that every living being on this planet, in each country must be entitled to. Rather than bomb hapless brothers and sisters living on the borders between countries, can we not set up a high street of goods and cafes in there and create a WTO panel to redefine that no man’s land or disputed territory?
Let a confluence happen of two cultures on that No-Man’s land and let it be the single acknowledgement of respect and not restraint, of love and not tolerance, of curiosity and not anxiety of mutual appreciation rather than mutual toxicity. If Pulitzer is listening and throws its weight behind that and if United Nations is listening and cuts through its diplomatic overtures and posturing to propose that, it may serve an ideal ode to those famous words of the Nobel Prize winner, Rabindra Natha Tagore,
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake”
Let us appreciate that there is a space in the market and there is a market in that space. The new war or peace strategy that countries must invest in, would rather be economic, for if a country can be brought down to its knees by marginalising its economy, no war needs to be fought. No warheads would be required, nuclear or otherwise and that, land would be ceded as a matter of fact.
Instead perhaps now more than ever is the time to reflect. This is a case to build self-sufficiency or “Atmanirbharata”, backed by trade tariffs and only then expand horizons rather than wait for life to ebb out of our industry and allow a vulture to feast on it. It calls for us to audit our need gaps to shore up and create domestic capacities. Enablise rather than fall prey and be cannibalised. This is also a call out expected from United Nation as well as Pulitzer to build Sudan as much as other nations.
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