G7 Aftermath
Western Leaders in Search of New Animosities
To Recall Active Attendance of Former British Colonialism
The G-7 used to be the G-8 – inclusive of Russia – but it shrank to being the “West and America First,” and anything else is a matter of opinion to be relevant for global peace and harmony. We the People of the world are constantly becoming victims of modern ignorance, rooted insolence of withered expectations and growing indifference to much-desired international cooperation and working together for peace, intelligence and goodness of humanity. While the masses, who are victimized by the atrocities of the ‘few against all’ war, are not the means to peacemaking and cutting short stupidity and evil-mongering against the global mankind – the real inhabitants of the Earth and extended universal harmony.
Will rationality teach the global leaders to realize the unthinkable horrors and devastations caused by nuclear arsenals and space weaponry hidden from the public eye, and to contemplate a world of harmony different from that of their own mindset? Not so; the G-7 leaders and their supporters met at a British island as if once again history was witnessing loyalist thumb-lickers of colonialism gathered to subscribe their allegiance to Western imperialism. The leaders included those of former subjects of British colonialism: America, India, South Africa, Japan under the US control after the Second World War, Australia, Canada, the EU and, of course, the Secretary General of the United Nations had to be there to be included in the reports and final communiqué to remain collectively relevant to the news-watchers. None had the vision of a sustainable future that will gather momentum for a universal accord, and not to perpetuated animosities. The Carbis Bay gathering looked more like a prelude to some ideological planning for militarism rather than dealing with the unusual human emergencies caused by Covid-19 pandemic and its widespread suspicions, pains and impacts beyond known human capacity to absorb for public normalcy across the globe.
Leaders Disconnected to Future-making of Global Mankind
The Western leaders are at a critical juncture after collapse of the American democracy which happened on January 6 with Trump-planned attack at the Capitol in Washington DC to thwart a peaceful transfer of power to then President–elect Joe Biden and restoration and continuity of liberal democracy. The leaders seem to worship the form and ignore the essence of reality – the challenges to working of democracy in the Western hemisphere. The G-7 gathering echoed the usual outburst of blame games against the rising global influence of China and Russia as formidable challenges to Western democracies. Were colonialism and imperialism part of the Western democracies at any time of the formative history? They led massive military campaigns against the poor, vulnerable and less developed human societies, and subjected them to prolonged pains, horrors, killings and imposed foreign cultures and thinking on the hapless humanity. This was the networking of the so-called Western nations claiming to be relevant for democratic norms in the 21st century of knowledge and wisdom.
Islam is a living force, but Muslim and especially Arab leaders are dead entities, dismantled puppets who are breathing oxygen for their survival at the mercy of America and former British colonialism. The Arabian Peninsula is submerged into moral and intellectual chaos, being incapacitated and unable to think for the future. America will egg Israel on to take initiatives for more control of the oil-pumping nations. Palestine, Kashmir, human rights, social justice, Black Lives Matter and equality of humanity – the real global issues – are discarded because there are no intelligent Muslim leaders; there are dead-ended princes, kings and dictators who forge alliances with the Western militarized nations.
We the People wish to rejoice truth, not evil. Western colonialism was built on vices of dehumanization of millions and millions of human beings throughout Asia and Africa and Central Asia. Was the G-7 gathering an exposition of a hybrid culture – part human and part vulture – to mislead the conscientious global humanity? To a critical observer and peacemaker, the G-7 leaders failed to come up with any reasoned plan for change, global peace and cooperation across the board. It was a gathering just to appease Biden or to one another for being active in compelling global developments. The G-7 leaders’ unexcitable shadows on the beach of Cornwall ended without any strength, good wishes for human serenity, and led to the clouds of suspicion for an unattainable future of confrontations with China, Russian and all living men of ideas. William Boardman, in his “A Country at War with an Illusion,” noted the same several years ago:
“’We have now been at war for well over a decade’, the president said in a statement so simple and broad as to include all the devastation we’ve wrought in Iraq and Afghanistan to so little useful effect, right down to the latest drone strike against some person we decided fits today’s enemy combatant profile.”
That much is obvious to almost everyone. Less obvious is that the same war has been turned inward, waged against Americans at home – increasingly prisoners of the homeland and increasingly surrounded by homeland security, whether needed or not. The unchecked expansion of policing entities since 9/11, too vast to be easily or briefly described, continues unchecked, because we are at war …
In Search of Competent Moral and Intellectual Leadership for Future-making
We the People observe increasing political cynicism and indifference as part of global leadership across continents. The ideals of harmonious and sustainable societies do not come out of perpetuated foolishness and animosities if the leaders knew what happened during the previous Two World Wars. The need for a reasoned dialogue between the economically and militarily active nations is the secret of peace and articulating a sustainable global peace and future for all. Sanctity of human life and preservation of the planet is vital at all times and in all policymaking and global consensus. Should the leaders go on a ride out in space to learn the reality of our lives and a peaceful future of all human beings? What if Russia and China were invited to be part of the G-9, rather than G-7? Would the earth have trembled or would the Western war machines collapsed from its superior manufacturing agenda capacity and active warmongering across the Middle East? Imagine if President Putin and President Xi Jinping were at the meeting, would it not have enhanced the imagination for a better world of understanding? The world of reason should not be tainted by ideological warfare or dictates of capitalism, communism or socialism or any other viable ideals, so to speak. Often, politically aligned thoughts in Europe and America have ignored the humanitarian vitality of China and Russia for convenient political expediency. There appears to be a lot of conjures to be cleaned and clarified for change and a new world order of collaboration and help when it is most needed beyond national flags and borders of the G-7 nations.
We the People uphold this ideal that leadership based on knowledge and wisdom, and representing the interest of larger mankind will lead us to human unity, benevolence, social justice, equality and global harmony, and certainly not to malignity, tyranny and neo-colonization. To make the global humanity peaceful and collaborative, the Western nations must think of unity and not of military confrontations, new animosities and economic warfare – We the People cannot imagine another “war of all against all,” unless we have lost the commonsense and rationality of human unity for the good of all.
Dr Mahboob A. Khawaja is the author of several publications including the latest “Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution: Approaches to Understand the Current Issues and Future-Making”.