A Single World Leader

Today we live in a world, where thanks to technological advancements in communication and digitization, countries have only geographical significance. Even problems such as Covid 19 pandemic with its variants like Delta and Omicron, climate change, terrorism, drug menace, human trafficking, etc., affect all nations.

  The fight against these scourges also tends to get global with nations coming together under the aegis of The United Nations (UN) through organs like  World Health Organisation(WHO),  the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC). Besides these,  other bodies like NATO, G20 summit, Conference of Parties 26 both held recently in Rome  Glasgow respectively also discuss ways and means of dealing with the problems.

 A fair assessment of the results of these global initiatives however points out that the problems still persist. The main reason for this is that though nations gather to find unanimity of approach, their respective national interests take a higher priority than the compulsion of implementing an agreed decision or solution. 

Take the Covid 19 pandemic for a case.  When the first and second waves of Covid were in full swing calling for vigorous vaccination drives, strict quarantine of victims,  area lockdowns, and travel restrictions,  many nations faced problems of insufficient quantities of vaccines, hospital beds, oxygen cylinders logistics difficulties, and demand outstripping supply,. Production of vaccines to meet the global needs at affordable costs is fraught with disputes over vaccine patent waivers. The WHO was crying hoarse to speed up vaccination of all adult population and enforce rigorous enforcement of Covid Appropriate Behaviour like masking the face, social distancing, and frequent handwashing. Individual nations or even areas within a nation decided these issues weighing the pros and cons of lockdowns vis-a-vis livelihood needs of the people. Then there was the problem of resistance to vaccination by some people. 

 The Paris Agreement as a legally binding international treaty on climate change has set a goal to limit global warming to a level below 2, preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. This calls for all nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide which is the main pollutant from burning coal for power generation. Both China and India have resisted attempts for a G20 declaration on phasing out domestic coal consumption. Here the economy of using locally available coal for the generation of power overrides the global good of reduced pollution arising from power using non-fossil sources.  

 The question arises as to why global initiatives for dealing with global problems have not delivered the goods in spite of the existence of global organs like the UN and overall laudable efforts by leaders of various nations to find solutions. Is it the respective national economic, political,  social, governance, ideological interest overwhelming global good.?

 Can there be a leader(s) to lead other leaders? What will be that entity's source of authority to lead? Will a group of public intellectuals, activists, authors, statesmen, artists, academia be able and acceptable to provide unified global leadership to leaders of governments? The UNGA and UNSC are only assemblies of governments with some of them threatening to stop funding and with weapons like Veto power can and have indeed torpedoed many viable solutions for many problems in the past. 

  

 

The Old Man and the GK

For Delhites GK is the abbreviation of Greater Kailash. This blog however talks of another GK . Most Delhi University graduates of my age have either made it , or failed to make it like me ,to the IAS, which if nothig else, made us great in GK, i.e., General Knowledge. GK was a compulsory paper in the wrtten exams and a favourite mind- teaser with the interview panelists. The Manorama Year Book was one of the the main sources and approaches to gain the bookish GK . Many bits and facts inputs were required to be learnt as GK . Examples: Babylonian civilization, marvels of scientific inventions and discoveries including Wagner's theory of the continental shift, milestones in world history, Hindu and Greek mythology, politics, plant , animal and sea life, evolution of the State from Plato to Marx and last but not the least current affairs. Famous authors and their works are another an important part of GK, like Kautilya's Arthshastra, Kalidasa's Shakuntalam, Milton's Paradise Lost, Gibbon's The Rise and Fall of The Roman Empire and so on which none of us have even heard about much less read. Perhaps this type GK was designed to make the IAS personnel know everything except Indian Adminisration which they would in any case learn later in their career from the political masters. Talking of books, Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea which has inspired me to title this blog after it with Gk in place of Sea though I have not read it. In one of his recent pieces , Jug Saraya , the columnist for The Times of India, divides the modern age into BC standing for Before Covid and AD for After the Disease . My piece here is about both these divisions in my life . My recent BC years were marked by personal mobility at my will and pleasure for shopping, haircut, attending concerts, evening meetings in our Society senior citizens group, taking morning/evening strolls in and around our residential campus, visiting bank ATMs and temples . Iwas particular about my attire choosing the right combination of shirts, short/long sleeved, and trousers. In the mild winetr months of Mumbai, I showed off with my wardrobe of blazers, scarves, shawls and sweaters. There was also the undisclosed agenda to present myself with charm and elan to the ladies of the Campus. Occasional academic tasks took me to a couple of local management institutions for delivering lectures, attending college development committee meetings etc, where I exhibited my extensive GK acquired for IAS exam to audiences sitting dazed at my wisdom. My questions at faculty selection or students admission meetings were not so much on the subjects like finance or HRD but based on the ever green GK gained years earlier for IAS. Except Current Affairs , most other GK has remained the same over the years. My current AD life is marked by more or less solitary confinement in our home with strict Covid compliant prtocol behaviour enforced by the family. New skills have been learnt like washing the hands frequently with soap and sanitizers, wearing a mask all the time and speaking clearly for others to understand and keeping social distance. The last requirement was not new to us as my wife and I have always maintained cosiderable distance of body and mind between ourselves. Not only our Society was declared as local containment zone, we too have our inhouse cotainment zones with me sitting in the hall watching the TV and lazing while my wife is locked in another room talking endlessly on phone with her daughetr, sister living abroad and brothers and cousins and local acquinatances . The Mask has given rise to one more Murphy's law i.e the itch in the nose occurs more often when one wears a mask than when not masked.Other noticeable changes in my persona are overdue hair cut , a lackadaisical approach to dress and apperance and opinionated or polarised views. It is said that the endemic will usher in new normals in every aspect of our familial, social, occupationalrelationships , behaviour and lifestyles.. Hope my accumulated GK would survive.

The Dreamy Writer

I dream most nights in my sleep. I have no clue to their duration but they are long enough to result in nice short stories involving themes and characters I have not thought of before. My dream stories occur in parts i.e., before, during and after brief spells of my waking up during the night. The stories are in my mother tongue Tamil. Occasionally I dream delivering speeches in excellent English. I am scarcely able to recall my stories and speeches in full the next morning and I fail in my attempts to write them on paper. Only sketches remain in my memory for few days and fade away. My dream of becoming a writer thus remains only in my dreams.