Gloomy year comes to an end; optimism lies ahead

Yuba Nath Lamsal

 Time flies faster than anything. It was like yesterday when we had welcomed the Year 2012 with much fanfare and enthusiasm. Now the Year 2012 has come to a close bidding farewell to all of us. A brand New Year 2013 has embraced us. We had welcomed the 2012 as a harbinger of hope, peace, prosperity and security in the world. However, this year marked mixed results in terms of people’s achievements, peace, security and just global order. Many interesting events unfolded with much larger, longer and far-reaching impact on the life of the global humanity. Some are good, some not so good and some are really disappointing.

When we talk of the events of 2012, the Arab Spring is by far the most striking event that marks a positive sign in the history of mankind. The Arab Spring heralded a new wave of political consciousness in the Middle East and North Africa. Started from a northern African country of Tunisia, the fire of protest spread fast and steadily to the entire Arab World. Popular upheaval deposed Tunisian dictator. The Egyptian revolution forced tyrant Hosni Mubarak to step down paving the way for a regime change. The tyrannical rule of Colonel Gaddafi in Libya was also brought to an end. The flame of Arab Spring continues to rage in Syria, Iran and much of the Arab World even today.

The world saw the worst economic crisis in 2012. The worst recession hit hard Europe and America having a deep political and social impact. Greece, Turkey, Spain, Portugal alike saw people pouring to streets to protest the anti-people policies in the name of austerity measures that caused greater hardship to the life of the people. This caused political unrest and instability, which has not yet settled. The political leadership has changed in some powerful countries which are the events of international impact. They are presidential election in the United States of America, leadership change in China and parliamentary elections in Japan and Venezuela. In the presidential election, President Barak Obama was given continuity to another four year term. But a striking feature was seen in this US election in which conservative and hawkish Republican Party was defeated. In the first time in US history, non-white voters or Latinos and Asians saw their strong presence. In fact, non-white people became the crucial factor for Obama’s reelection. This election brought to the surface a new demographic pattern, which will have a far-reaching impact in US political course for ever.

Xi Jinping assumed the leadership of the second most powerful nation in the world. The decade-long leadership of Hu Jintao came to a close and Xi emerged as a new leader for the next decade. This marks not only the great event of the year but also an important political development of the decade. China’s leadership change will definitely have its own impact in the international arena since China is a global power. Japan, one time’s economic super power, saw a change of regime in the parliamentary election that brought the conservative Liberal Democratic Party and its leader Shinzo Abe back to power. Venezuela’s election, too, an important event in the international politics. In the election, Hugo Chavez’s socialist-oriented party was given a thumping victory, which is a blow to the rightist of the world including Washington hat had been drumming up support for the Chavez’s dissidents. The French presidential election, too, was an event of the year that dumped the ultra-rightist Nicolas Sarzoky’s regime and installed Francois Hollande in power. The French election is important as it, too, marked the defeat of ultra-rightist and conservative, which shows that the world is now slowly but surely becoming socialism oriented.

With the economic crisis creeping sharply into big economies, the world is fast getting polarized between the rich aiming at maintaining their control over global capital, resources, technology and power and the poor and downtrodden world that is struggling to break free from the yoke of capitalist exploitation, domination and repression. This struggle and clash is getting acute with every passing day. The capitalism seems to be in deep crisis and is heading towards its serious failure and fatal collapse. As the world is dominated by overwhelming poor and downtrodden population, the global wave for a just and equitable society followed by human political system and egalitarian economic system is slowly but steadily emerging. As a result, clash and conflicts have cropped up in the world in various forms. When the political. Social, cultural and economic issues are not addressed to the optimum satisfaction of the overwhelming people in the world; the wave of resistance is bound to take place, which we have seen in Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America. Be it the occupation movement in the United States, Canada and several European cities or violent protests and demonstrations across the world are the expression of people’s wrath and anguish against global capitalism that has utterly failed to address people’s fundamental problems.

It is the nature of capitalism to let the crisis deepen and keep the people divided to extract benefits out of the economic and social chaos. The ultimate goal of capitalism is profit and profit by any means possible. It is not always possible to make unlimited profit with limited resources. When resources are exhausted and scarce, capitalism resorts to war and brutal exploitation of the people. When the capitalism reaches this stage, it starts to collapse and the collapse of capitalism has already begun in the world. The global capitalism has reached the stage of collapse, which is being met by unprecedented popular resistance. Every action has its own reaction and such reaction can be of varied manifestations.

Repression breeds resistance, which often turns violent. When resistance becomes violent and wild it goes beyond control. Some unscrupulous elements and religious fundamentalists may misuse popular frustration and fury. The present wave of terrorism in the world being instigated by religious fundamentalists like Al Queda and its allies in the world should be analyzed against this background. When political forces and leaders failed to address the popular grievances and political and economic problems, religious zealots came in to misuse the popular resentment. Thus the world is now mired in ugly onslaught of international terrorism which has afflicted the entire humanity killing thousands of innocent civilians.

The globe witnessed a chain of violent incidents and events throughout the passing year. Some of the major events happened in nations such as Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Hundreds of people were killed in brutal terrorist attack in various parts of Afghanistan. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq remained the flash points of terrorist attacks. Thousands of people fled from northeastern regions of Mali where government troops battled rebels seeking secession. At least 24 persons were killed in fighting between Russian security forces and Chechen rebels in a border region between Chechnya and Dagestan. Five people died and 69 others were wounded in a chain of blasts at a railway station in the Kenyan capital. At least 19 people died in an armed attack on a public transportation bus in western Ethiopia. Four persons were killed in an armed attack on a school for Jews in southern French city of Toulouse. Government forces in Colombia killed 32 rebels in a raid on the rebel strongholds in the central region of Meta. In June, gunmen killed 11 people and wounded 10 others in an attack on a drug rehabilitation center in Torreon, a city in northern Mexico. At least 16 persons were killed in armed attacks on villages in southwestern Ivory Coast. At least 20 people were killed in an armed attack carried out by gunmen against Tuareg warriors in northern Mali. In July, six gunmen and a Russian soldier were killed in clashes between rebels and the Russian forces in a Chechen-Dagestani border region. On July 24, at least 24 people died and 60,000 others fled their homes in violence in the Indian region of Assam. In the same month, 18 people died in racial violence in southern Ethiopia.   In August, seven people died in an armed attack on a Sikh worship site in the US north-central state of Wisconsin. These are only representative incidents of violence in the world and there are many more such ugly incidents.

Thus, the year 2012 has three main trends: i. political upheavals and resistance, ii. economic crisis and iii. violence. In other words, the Year 2012 marked both negative trends as well as optimism for positive developments. The Year 2013 is already with us, which is expected to herald a new era of the people and optimism.