By OCTAVIA NASR
The pulse of the world is going at an alarming rate signaling an inevitable explosion. While some individuals and politicians are concerned only with their small turf, the entire globe is going through transformation adding emerging crises to already accumulated challenges and unresolved problems.
We live in a world going through a major disorder and in dire need for balance.
Freedom
The significant role of technology and the Internet is undeniable. How the have’s and have-not’s are identified has changed dramatically as a result of our shrinking universe. Freedom is proving to be a lot more important than wealth, property or even life itself. In varying degrees and intensities, ordinary people around the world are demanding their rights and even rebelling against their oppressors. This pattern seems to be on the rise with no sign of subsiding at the moment.
New powers
Communist China has been expanding and investing in emerging economies and regions such as Africa and the Middle East for years. China’s focus is primarily economic, and as such it is becoming the new world leader. With leadership come new interests and responsibilities that will, sooner or later, pull it into the political and military conflicts of those regions. India will also be influential, as will Japan but no one will have as much stake in the region as China and the locals if they pay attention to the real threats and problems.
With the deservedly dwindling influence of the United States and the continued historic distant role of Europe (with the exception of Russia and Turkey), the regions of Africa and the Middle East are wide open for all kinds of agendas. The Arab uprisings have also opened the door wide for entities, small and large. Not all will succeed, but the situation is so chaotic that the rule of the jungle will apply and only the fittest will survive. The question is who is the fittest and how will fitness be expressed, measured and tracked?
With the deservedly dwindling influence of the United States and the continued historic distant role of Europe (with the exception of Russia and Turkey), the regions of Africa and the Middle East are wide open for all kinds of agendas. The Arab uprisings have also opened the door wide for entities, small and large. Not all will succeed, but the situation is so chaotic that the rule of the jungle will apply and only the fittest will survive. The question is who is the fittest and how will fitness be expressed, measured and tracked?
Extremism vs. secularism
Those aware of the current world disorder are working hard to establish their bases as far and as wide as they can. Think Islamists and even conservative Islam in general in addition to fundamental Christianity and Judaism. While one would think that the world should be turning more into secularism as a result of the “Global Village” and the borderless virtual one universe, it turns out it is much easier to accept and tolerate the virtual other than it is to do so in real life.
As a result, we’re seeing extremism spread in the world at all levels of society. From a sharp rise in religious schools and institutions, especially Muslim in traditionally Christian countries, to a blatant expression of religious affiliation through the hijab in schools controversy in Europe for instance. Fundamentalists are certainly expanding their territory and strengthening their stance, while the real peacemakers are practicing their tolerance unbeknownst to them that they are being used as tools to bring change only to be pushed aside at the end. At the ripe moment, extremists rally the troops under one banner and swiftly take over.
The Muslim effect can be felt from Bangkok to Paris and Muslim extremism poses a threat from China to Switzerland. Militant Islam’s terror can be seen in the Philippines as in Somalia, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Buenos Aires and Pakistan. No part of the world is safe from terrorism such as alQaeda’s and its global franchise. This new world disorder is made up of individuals who feel entitled to have things as they wish them to be. What could start out as a decent cause and rightful struggle often ends up ushering in the wrong people to power and abusing the very people who should be credited for the change.
As a result, we’re seeing extremism spread in the world at all levels of society. From a sharp rise in religious schools and institutions, especially Muslim in traditionally Christian countries, to a blatant expression of religious affiliation through the hijab in schools controversy in Europe for instance. Fundamentalists are certainly expanding their territory and strengthening their stance, while the real peacemakers are practicing their tolerance unbeknownst to them that they are being used as tools to bring change only to be pushed aside at the end. At the ripe moment, extremists rally the troops under one banner and swiftly take over.
The Muslim effect can be felt from Bangkok to Paris and Muslim extremism poses a threat from China to Switzerland. Militant Islam’s terror can be seen in the Philippines as in Somalia, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Buenos Aires and Pakistan. No part of the world is safe from terrorism such as alQaeda’s and its global franchise. This new world disorder is made up of individuals who feel entitled to have things as they wish them to be. What could start out as a decent cause and rightful struggle often ends up ushering in the wrong people to power and abusing the very people who should be credited for the change.
What’s next?
In the midst of all this, the world doesn’t seem to have leadership. The United Nations, its peacekeepers, envoys and resolutions are not taken seriously, NATO and its allies are viewed as partial and not to be trusted, the Arab League has no place or voice in a fast changing Middle East, entities such as Israel, Iran and Hezbollah act as bullies and no one seems able to stop them. Syria is bleeding with no clear solution in sight because no one owns its revolution. Every Arab nation is on the brink of explosion, whether the west is involved or not. All the while Egypt and Tunisia are living examples of what an Islamist rule means.
Everyone should drop their petty problem and deal with the real threat. Because, if this is not a scary disorder, I don’t know what is!
This article was first published in Al- Nahar newspaper on Feb. 12, 2013 and on Octavia Nasr’s blog on Feb. 11, 2013.
(Multi-award-winning journalist Octavia Nasr served as CNN’s senior editor of Middle Eastern affairs, and is regarded as one of the pioneers of the use of social media in traditional media. She moved to CNN in 1990, but was dismissed in 2010 after tweeting her sorrow at the death of Hezbollah’s Mohammed Fadlallah. Nasr now runs her own firm, Bridges Media Consulting, whose main aim is to help companies better leverage the use of social networks.)
Everyone should drop their petty problem and deal with the real threat. Because, if this is not a scary disorder, I don’t know what is!
This article was first published in Al- Nahar newspaper on Feb. 12, 2013 and on Octavia Nasr’s blog on Feb. 11, 2013.
(Multi-award-winning journalist Octavia Nasr served as CNN’s senior editor of Middle Eastern affairs, and is regarded as one of the pioneers of the use of social media in traditional media. She moved to CNN in 1990, but was dismissed in 2010 after tweeting her sorrow at the death of Hezbollah’s Mohammed Fadlallah. Nasr now runs her own firm, Bridges Media Consulting, whose main aim is to help companies better leverage the use of social networks.)
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