Uncertain World

Are we becoming a world where bad things happen to innocent people and yet we cannot do anything about them? A world where when non-stop images of children and civilians killed, maimed and displaced by the thousands generate endless political debates, verbal condemnations, moral outrage and hand-wringing, and yet fail to produce any single action that could actually put an end to the violence itself. Because these people are mere pawns in a much larger global politics where human rights are lower in priority than political might?

A world where a passenger plane carrying hundreds of ordinary travelers and holiday makers can be shot down from over thirty thousand feet, sending it crashing to the ground, scattering bodies over wheat and sunflower fields, and through the roofs of people’s homes like broken toys, and yet somehow, despite the shock and disbelief that reverberate across the continents, those responsible for the atrocity still go unpunished. Because those with the greater political clout and audacity control the narrative, however loud the global condemnation? Because in the end it was just plain bad luck being at the wrong place at the wrong time?

A world where a violent religious group goes on a rampage, subjugating cities in order to create a caliphate across Iraq and the Levant, terrorizing followers of other religions such as Shia Islam and Christianity, and whose destructive actions not only cause fear and protests, but also inspire followers around the world to join them, including from this country, while there’s not much the governments can do about it.

This is also a world where hundreds of schoolgirls can be kidnapped from their school to be used as slaves by a militant group in Nigeria while the world could only look on in horror, curse the action and yet remain helpless to do much about it.

Where again a jumbo jet carrying over two hundred passengers could suddenly and inexplicably disappear off radar and months later, despite the most sophisticated equipment under the sun, still fails to be found anywhere on this planet, and whose loss will no doubt cause a lifetime of unresolved grief for their families and loved ones.

It is as if the more connected our world is, the more of a global village the planet becomes, the shorter the distance between the time zones and the more of an ethnic hotchpotch our backyard is, the less clear it is who is in charge, and even less clear are the rules that prevail and the sanctions against those breaking them.

Even more unsettling than the breaking of rules, however, is the refusal to play by the rules to begin with, not to mention the imposition of a completely different type of rules where it is acceptable to inflict violence, wreak havoc on people’s lives and property, kill innocent people, persecute those of different faiths or ethnicity, rape women and abuse children as well as redrawing agreed upon national borders.

It seems what we have accepted as Universal and True, such as our basic human rights, are in danger of becoming something that is relative and open to interpretation, depending on the whim of the individuals and the circumstances. After all, it only takes one player to ignore the rule for the whole game to disintegrate. And it only takes one madman to turn a genteel dinner party into a helpless confusion. Indeed, the behavior of the crazy fellow is disgraceful, but no one is equally crazy enough to tackle him to the ground.

A terrorist in one person’s eye can be a hero in another person’s eye. A horrible act of injustice to some is a justifiable act to others. Somewhere in the middle, the truth gets lost in the pursuit of vested interests, whether political, religious, racial, territorial, nationalistic, topped with the strong desire for survival.

Somewhere in the middle, babies are killed, young girls are kidnapped and innocent people fall from the skies to their deaths. Desi Anwar is a senior anchor on Indonesian TV.