World beset with grave crises

When we get up in the morning and listen to the radio or television or read the newspaper, we are confronted with the same depressing news and horrible stories: violence, crime, wars, and disasters. Not a single day passes without a report of something terrible happening somewhere in the world. The world is now inexorably beset with threats and crises. Belligerence being aroused by the threats will spare no nation; no soft answer is going to turn away the wrath the crises are creating. No former generation perhaps has had to experience so much bad news as we face today. This constant awareness of fear and tension should make any insightful and kind-hearted person question seriously the progress of our modern world.
The global economy binds together the fate of humanity. A healthy world economy precludes the possibility of a third World War, and also exposes individuals all over the world to new ideas, products, and information. But, today, the world economy is facing looming crises that have the potential to rapidly escalate into severe predicaments and kill innovative initiatives for progress.
The United States, the world's largest and the most powerful economy, is deep in debt at the individual, institutional, and governmental levels. The dollar is at its lowest rate in years, and the fundamental drivers of the US economy appear to be coming undone. Europe is in greater debt and facing deflation. Economic reforms there in Europe are not working as was expected. Even Germany, the bulwark in the European Union, is in a dilemma how to cope with imminent deflation and possible stagflation. China is hit by an abnormally low growth.
Human population has nearly tripled over the last 50 years, while industrial pollution, unsustainable agriculture, and poor civic planning and governance have drastically decreased the overall water supply. Water -- the essential constituent for life -- is becoming an increasingly scarce resource. About two billion people lack access to clean water and one billion people do not have enough to even meet their daily needs. Every day toxic chemicals and polluted materials are seeping into rivers and lakes making them hazardous to humans and animals. Underground aquifers -- our most vital sources of drinking water -- are being depleted at an alarming rate.
Today, human activities are causing extinction of living species, the full implications of which are yet to be understood. Commercial fishing's increasing size and scope are threatening to empty the oceans of fish within a few decades. Modern agricultural practices are stripping the Earth of its slim layers of topsoil, destroying this precious micro-ecosystem that takes centuries to form and supports all life on land.
Certain species -- for example, bees, insects and birds for pollination -- which we human beings depend upon for our food supply, are rapidly going extinct. If their numbers fall too low we may face extinction ourselves. Bees pollinate over 70 per cent of our food.
And the debates over wars, poverty, hunger, terrorism and rapid climate change are going on. If people from developed and developing countries fail to stop wars, reduce poverty, feed the hungry, thwart terrorism, stop climate change and face and solve other multifarious threats and crises, we are, for sure, heading to face mutual destruction.
Many experts believe we are on the brink of a global economic depression. If the markets fail, the infrastructure of modern civilisation will collapse causing modern ways of living to drastically change. Fragilities in the current global economy may tip the developed world into conditions and the developing world into situations not seen since 1930s depression.
There are manifold threats that are dogging the world. But the aggressions by Islamic State (IS) and the outbreak of Ebola, which the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights recently described as "twin plagues", are two crises that are causing fears and drawing the global attention most. These two crises may turn the world into a 'house of blood', if left unchecked. Efforts by the western nations to check these two curses may not be effective or sufficient unless the whole world community rises to the occasion with battlefield spirit and spiritual warfare.
The Muslim community, irrespective of their sects, may repent if they refrain themselves from raising their loud voice against Islamic State, which in no way, or by any standard, is Islamic, nor is it doing any good to the Sunni Muslims they claim to represent.
The destabilisation of modern civilisation by the IS terrorists in the name of establishing so-called global caliphate is an assault upon the ideals and expression of freedom and has the potential to present the whole Muslim community to the world as a terrorist group of people in spite of the fact that Muslims in general are against all kinds of terrorism and Islam, their religion, does not - and did never - espouse terrorism to establish such caliphate.
Islamic State is gaining territory in Iraq and Syria and Ebola is spreading in West Africa and other parts of the world. Persons carrying the ideology of IS in their minds or bearing the germs of Ebola inside their bodies have been living in or entering into many countries. These two crises may suck the nations into a different never-seen-before global catastrophe. Both IS and Ebola have the power to wreak terror, panic and death.  Combating these plagues demands unanimity of global efforts. All nations must take collective measures to stop the outrageous ideology and the dreadful disease from creeping into any corner of the world.
Some observers have termed these two plagues as "venomous exports", Ebola export and IS export, which a person can carry and transmit to others, threatening security in countries around the world.
Over the last few years, terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda and Islamic State, have become more decentralised and daring. In spite of the fact that Obama administration has efficiently destroyed the key leadership of some of the terrorist groups by pounding their bastions by drones and other means, yet some of the groups, which are nimble and resilient, have spread to more than a dozen countries and equipped themselves with more lethal weapons and strategies.
Terrorist attacks nowadays also come from closer to home in America and Europe and may hit other nations soon. Young Americans and Europeans, who are deemed home-grown radicals, have travelled overseas to enlist as foreign fighters and some of them have returned back home. Some home-grown radicalised jihadists have already unleashed attacks against their own people.
Over the past few days, two terrorist attacks took place in Canada, including a gunman  killing a soldier at a war memorial and invading the Canadian Parliament.
Meanwhile, another silent but no less virulent threat in the cyber arena is looming over the globe. Internet vulnerabilities are quickly exceeding any nation's capability to protect it. News media are filled with incidents like a government agency being breached or a private company being hacked, inflicting huge damage on the global digital realms. Radicals are already skilled with IT knowledge and learning the newest technologies; cyber-terrorism could be next on their list.
The world is a volatile place right now and things could get worse. The Islamic State might swiftly escalate geopolitical problems in the Middle East and begin a more systematic export of radicalisation around the world. Ebola may spread the whole world as an unprecedented pandemic catastrophe. Cyber hackers may inflict damages to a country's peace, security, commerce and defence much more than what the two world wars did to humanity. All these threats require a strategic containment policy and a collaborative world response. Every single country needs to take immediate actions against these threats.
These are not the only problems the world is facing today. There are numerous other problems prevailing in the world. There is no doubt about the increase in our material progress and technological development, yet such developments do not seem to have fostered goodness, but only increased restlessness and discontent. Modern technology has not only enhanced our living, it has also strengthened the hands of the terrorists. With the advancement in our lifestyle, we now have to face many perilous issues.
There must be something seriously wrong with our progress and development, and if we do not check it in time there could be disastrous consequences for the future of humanity. Yes, we should think about facing the crises and solving the problems. In order to make our earth a better place to live for our children and our children's children, we certainly need to do something about it and make the world a good place to live in.
 

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