So much trouble in the world

LONG before his death during the first half of 1981, at 36 years of age, legendary Reggae king and philosopher, Bob Marley treated the world to one of his great hits in 'So much trouble in the world'. He had looked at conflicts between nations and among kinsmen everywhere in the world, the unquantifiable oppression and exploitation of fellow human beings especially in the apartheid regime in South Africa, trouble spots dotting the globe, such heart-rending activities mankind brought upon itself. To a great extent, Bob Marley alerted the world on the destructive path man set for himself inadvertently. Little did Bob Marley or anyone else realise that what the maestro cried aloud to redeem was more of the tip of an iceberg. More than two and a half decades after, it would be an understatement to describe the situation as worse. No part of the world is spared. Besides being the battle for supremacy between groups, one is tempted to ask: Why does man hate his brother so much? Ever since we were told Cain raised his hand to fatally wound his brother Abel in biblical times, things have never been the same with man. Since then, he has continuously perfected the art of overcoming the other by whatever means, from the development of the deadly AK-47 (improved upon to AK-49 ) by the famous Kalashnikov and on to perhaps the deadliest - the nuclear power. I learnt that with this contraption, at the push of a button, this world which we all enjoy so much and don't want to bid goodbye will become history, an account of which no one will survive to render. What a wonderful world!

From the Middle East to the Far East to the West, to our dear Africa, it's war or rumours of war and the accompanying hunger, disease, misery and deaths. Let's look at the world's most acclaimed hotbed - the Middle East. The struggle here is as old as the world itself. A political analyst cynically argued, rightly or wrongly, that no solution will be found to the troubles of the region until the end of age. From all indications, it's a never-ending game of survival in the region. Every blessed day on the television, one is saddled with watching one gory picture or the other of dying souls, or dead persons even. Thanks to the cable TVs you can even watch a man as those deadly weapons man used his God-given intelligence to craft snuff life out of him. Who says man is not his own greatest enemy?

About two weeks ago, bodies of two kids about two years old - who fell victims of gunfire in the Gaza Strip(mid-east) reportedly from the Israeli camps were being proudly paraded around by their people in a show of emotional support for the struggle against Israel. The usual militant solidarity songs followed the bodies around. That is one just of the many regrettable incidents witnessed daily in that region, a really complicated region inhabited by people who themselves are looking complicated. Who will deliver these people from themselves or from the abyss into which they have sunk?

Iraq is the contemporary theatre of the absurd. Consciously or unconsciously, the Iraqis have been helped unto the path of annihilation by a grand master who enjoys humiliating other people. The situation has become so irredeemable. Journalists are in the news gathering business around here. Whatever happens in Iraq is news, agreed. But I always tell my colleagues that the real news will come from that country on a day no death is recorded. For five long years, the coalition force led by the U.S. have pounded the city of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, that by now it ought to have lost its original planning or design. That is even minor, compared to the conservative estimates of casualties since the so-called war started. This year alone, 2008, in January, no fewer than 554 Iraqis made it to the casualty list, February (674), March (980), April 744) and May, just six day old, 42 deaths. These are not definitive counts, they are based on news reports. The actual totals are higher. Of course there are also military fatalities on the part of the coalition forces. By the last count, it had moved up to 4,071 over the period of aggression. We all know what it means for America to lose one of its citizens. Yet, she has lost thousands and will continue to lose until it pulls out of the thoroughly dehumanised nation. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was once reported as saying he miscalculated how long it would take Iraq to recover from the impact of Saddam Hussein's rule. Saddam has since been overthrown and executed after his trial for offences against his people. I hope Cheney would not miscalculate again how long it would take the country and its citizens to recover from the impact of five years of unrestrained assault on the innocent people.

Iraq has become a major campaign issue currently in the United States. The aspirants are daily being made to walk a tight rope to convince the politically savvy American electorate how they will handle the sore issue.

The country has been gradually turned into one big camp of insurgents. The psyche has been seriously assaulted. Suicide bombers even practise their trade at funeral and wedding place! Oh, the people deserve more pity than blame.

In the Afghan hills and trenches, the ghost of Osama bin Laden looms large. His men's activities continue to give the U.S. and other coalition nations in the battle against terrorism nightmares. Watching a footage of the birds of war in training ordinarily will run cold shivers through one's spines. We were all witnesses to the horrors the group al Qaeda unleashed on the America and by extension the world on September 11, 2001. It has stuck till today in human memory as 9/11. In Afghanistan too, there's no end to insurgency. How can we also forget so easily the oppression of innocent monks by the military junta in Myanmar (Burma), China against Tibet, East Timor and many more?

Coming home to our dear continent Africa, it's the same story. From Dafur region in Sudan to the north, down to Chad and further down south in the Congo Republic, it's a test in human endurance. People die everyday in senseless assaults. Hunger has redesigned the features of many Africans who just live by the day in hopeless situations. We cannot forget in a hurry the genocide in Rwanda(God bless the almost one million souls lost),the bloodbath in Liberia and the annihilation in Sierra Leone. Cote d'Ivoire has made its own contribution too on the negative side. Kenya has just emerged from a conflagration - the result of post election violence engineered by greedy leaders who had lost focus. While the self destruction lasted, we saw live on the tube man's inhumanity to man. Brothers rose up in arms against one another in a macabre dance of shame. Blood flowed freely on the streets just as homes went up in flames. As usual, the less privileged ones were forced to queue for food rations in improvised shelters. Zimbabwe is on the precipice right now as the country sorts itself out over gross abuse of electoral matters. Octogenarian leader Robert Mugabe is fighting the battle of his life to stay on for another five years through an election he clearly lost to the opposition. The world is watching.

The United Nations peace making mechanism has been grossly overstretched by all these flash points around the world. For Kenya, thanks to the unrelenting push by former UN scribe Kofi Annan(who was officially designated by the global body to seek peace in the country).

What has been treated here is by no means exhaustive. There's a whole lot to be said about Kosovo/Serbia,Chenchen province in Russia, Lebanon and Syria, Tibet/China, Myanmar, Jammi and Kashmir(India and Pakistan) and many more. What has happened to diplomacy? Wars and rebellions or revolts have flashed or flared for decades. When will man take a break from self-imposed sense of insecurity? No mention has even been made of natural disasters and diseases that had claimed millions of lives. The current devastation in Myanmar is a good example. As at yesterday, the state radio officially reported 22,000 dead and tens of thousands missing after a weekend storm that hit two of the country's cyclone prone regions. The figures are still rising.

There is so much trouble in the world and it needs a divine intervention.