A
year is about to end, and with it a decade as well. And it has been a
very eventful one. If anything, this decade has been the decade of
revolutions. This decade was also one with the biggest humanitarian
crises, refugees on the rises and many civil wars. Virtually every
country has a war ridden neighbor from where people fled; sometimes with
other nations, sometimes with itself. This decade has also seen the
worst form state sponsored terrorism and authoritarianism. This is the
decade where I have learned about double tap strikes and poison gas
attacks. This is the decade when we chose to ignore and look aside when
people have been ruthlessly killed; we sent them thoughts and prayers
from the comfort of our couch.
This
is the decade when fearmongers and dividers in chief came to power.
This is the decade when information is weaponized; and propaganda was
re-invented. This is the decade when we saw the meteoric rise of hate
sellers to the most powerful positions in the world. This is the decade
when the countries, which were the beacon of democracy and freedom, fell
into fascism and intolerance, one way or another. This is the decade
which gave power to far right thorughout
the world. This decade saw the rise of anti-vaccine advocates. This is
the decade when the right to privacy is an all-time low; this is the
decade where police states took seat in our back porch.
This
is the decade when we have seen the worst climate crisis and disaster.
There wasn’t a month that went by without a record breaking, never seen
in our life kind of disaster striking some place in the world: Biggest
floods, fiercest hurricanes, coldest winters, and hottest summers were
seen in this decade. We have lost a lot of forests to corporate greed
and some more to fires. Biggest cities in the world gasped for clean
air. And we have also seen the worst contributors to this crisis flatly
rejecting these facts.
But
it was not all bad. We have also seen a few sparkles of light here and
there. Whistleblowers who risked everything, including life, to bring
shady deeds of states to light. We had loudest voices championing
sustainable development. We have seen kind hearts rushing to the rescue
of people in the most dangerous corners of world. We had voices asking
for good education, responsible governance, and ever-growing number of youths saying “enough is enough” and don’t hesitate to call a spade a spade.
The
next decade, and the particularly the next year could be the most
significant one of our lives. This should be the year where we take
definitive action on climate. This will be the year we have the fiercest
battles with fascism. This will be the year of action against false
propaganda and information warfare. This should be the year where
we start paying attention to the politics, and identify the voices of
truth and justice. This will be the year where we back the existing and
new voices asking for these. This will be the year that we save humanity
as we know it. But, most important of all, this is the year that we
prove that humanity is still worth saving.
