A gift of peace from youth

When I was at sea, very long time back, I read a story about one Indian town of Malihabad, which I believe there is a botanical wonder that holds a lesson for all humankind. The ‘Miracle Tree of Malihabad’ is a mango tree that has been lovingly nurtured by a traditional mango farmer. The wonder of this tree is that it nurtures and brings forth over 300 different varieties of mangoes, all because of this farmer’s skilled horticultural knowledge. 

Since he started this magnificent idea, he has devised new and advanced grafting techniques and continues to add new varieties to the tree and to his orchard. As the man who has won multiple awards says, “If 300 different mango varieties can coexist peacefully in one tree, then why can’t we?”  Now that is a question we all need to ponder especially in these fragmented times.

If we do not practice a firm commitment to harmony and to peace, we are going to be overtaken by technology and shall find ourselves in the middle of a street fight – only, this street fight will take place across national highways!  Take the example of the recent scare we all got about 3D drawings of guns that could be downloaded off the Internet and printed. Before you know it, tenyear olds will be printing ammunition in their home 3D printers as birthday party favours and quite unknowing about the potential for death and destruction.

True, the US Supreme Court ordered the inventor to pull back the information but  there is no guarantee that somewhere someone has not already safely saved the plan on a USB for future distribution! The only real weapon we have against destruction and war is our own ability to avoid injustice and fighting. However, we have to be realistic. Can we stand by with folded hands when pirates rage across the seas? Can we look on when despots decimate innocent civilians? Of course not, because the future of the human race depends on the strong protecting the weak. What we should not do is provoke a fight – whether between communities, neighbourhoods or countries. 

The US has recently announced the first steps it will take to create a fourth wing of its army to protect its space satellites and space ships. The Space Force branch, will, experts say, be largely manned by new technology – inter-stellar drones that will patrol and disarm attacks. The world is watching with interest and the “battleground” may soon shift and become “battleskies”. As far back as 2012, Håvard Hegre, a professor in the department of Political Science at the University of Oslo, carried out a series of statistical analyses to come to the conclusion, in collaboration with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). The study reveals that in five years’ time India, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Uganda and Burma will be at the greatest risk of conflict, while in 40 years time it will be India, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia and Tanzania.  The good news? Those conflicts ongoing in 2011, including in Iraq, Libya, Tajikistan, Syria, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Mauritania, will most likely be over.

Before we pat ourselves on the back for maturity, let me tell you, that the study predicted that peace would come because war would just become financially pointless and not because we humans realised our foolishness in killing each other. Moreover, education would increase and the world’s youth populations becoming smaller. And that’s really the key, isn’t it? We older generation have always sent our children to the front to bite the bullet. Peace, when it comes, will be the result of these youth refusing to fight our wars.