New
Year's Wish List
By Satya Sagar
Znet
01 January, 2004
It
is the New Year madness time once again. The bells have begun to jingle
once more, neon-lit Christmas trees adorn the doorways of department
stores and the middle-classes of the world are ready to shop, shop,
shop till their creditors drop.
What does one do
with an entire New Year on hand when the shambles of the last one are
still all around us? Does the turning of a page in a paper calendar
really change anything that the people of the world have endured since
the last commerce-driven celebration?
Just think of what
the year 2003 really represents to the future well-being of planet Earth?
The US invasion and occupation of Iraq stands out as one of the most
despicable acts of not just the passing year but also a lot of recent
human history itself. The occupation together with the bogus US War
on Terror have set the clocks of our world so far back in time that
I am right now trying to catch up on medieval European history. And
also looking up the profile of fellows like Attila the Hun and Genghis
Khan, only to discover things looked much brighter then than in our
times.
There are at least
over 50,000 people or more who should have been around to usher in 2004
but who are not around only because the greed and inhumanity of the
US establishment did not allow them to. And the tragedy being played
out in the killing fields of Iraq has only just begun! God only knows
how many more will die due to the continued occupation and, when it
is finally ends, the legacy it leaves behind of unexploded ordnance,
depleted uranium, disabled citizens and above all the deep mistrust
and hatred between countries of the world.
And in the meanwhile
the escalation of violence against the Palestinian people, the continued
subjugation of the people of Kashmir, the perpetual tensions between
India and Pakistan and the decimation of the people of sub-Saharan Africa
due to poverty, conflict and disease continued all of last year. Fundamentalists
of all hues- Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu too carried on with
their misuse of the Creator's name and kill innocent people using modern
devices to further their medieval goals.
Amidst all this
doom and gloom there were glimmers of hope too- mostly in the form of
people's resistance against the injustices of our world. The glorious
worldwide anti-war marches, the breakdown of the WTO talks in Cancun,
the ousting of a neo-liberal President in Bolivia, among other struggles,
all point to a future that is not just possible but very much within
our reach too.
When the enemies
of humanity are trying their best to put all of us to permanent sleep
it becomes the duty of all decent human beings to stay awake. And in
the absence of a true and powerful awakening even our dreams have to
become an act of resistance. So, here is my list of the ten top dreams
and wishes I have for the coming New Year. I am already sharpening my
pen to tick them off one by one as the year progresses!
The 2004 Wish List:
1) Iraqi national
resistance will kick out US occupation forces with least injury to themselves
and also the young clueless soldiers of the invading army. The victorious
Iraqi forces will then create a new Iraq that will respect the aspirations
of all members of their society while returning US soldiers do the same
in their country.
2) The US occupation
forces will not kill more innocent Afghan and Iraqi men, women and children
in their desperation to implement the foolish policies of their political
masters. May the soldiers become smarter and their bombs dumber.
3) A tribunal for
war crimes and crimes against humanity will prosecute George Bush Jr.
and Tony Blair for their war of aggression on Iraq and for making our
world a much more dangerous place than it was at the beginning of 2002.
The two of them will be sentenced to occupy, together, the spider hole
vacated recently by Saddam Hussein.
4) In the absence
of such a tribunal- the US plans for a new mission to the moon will
materialize soon and we can send Bush, Blair and Ariel Sharon on that
trip into space. The remote controls will be given to the prisoners
at Guantanamo Bay to compensate for all the misery, suffering and general
absence of fun of the past many months.
5) All countries
supporting the invasion of Iraq are made to pay for its reconstruction
and their companies barred from bidding for the contracts. In particular,
the East European regimes, which supported the war, will have to pay
for all contracts bagged by the Russians.
6) Having sent Sharon
to the moon, the Israelis and Palestinians will agree on a peace settlement
that will form a unified Israelistine. The expenses for setting up the
new nation will be underwritten by all Western and Eastern countries
responsible in the past for persecuting the Jewish people and colonizing
the Palestinians.
7) The Indian government
will change its foolish policies on Kashmir, establish lasting peace
with Pakistan and initiate nuclear disarmament on the subcontinent.
Funds from the disbanded nuclear arms industry will be used to improve
nutrition levels among children in both India and Pakistan.
8) The arms manufacturers
of the world are forced to close down, their assets seized and the resources
reused for delivering free healthcare to sub-Saharan Africa. The unemployed
arms industry executives can help clear landmines in Angola, Congo,
Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan ---
9) The wealth of
all oil companies and automobile manufacturers seized and used to build
mass public transport systems. Unemployed executives of Haliburton in
particular can be reassigned to plant trees in the Sahara for the next
one year.
10) All intellectual
property laws and patent right agreements are suspended till an international
commission decides who was the first person in human history to invent
the phrase 'Momma, I love ya !'. For that is where all creative inspiration
springs from -the unpatentable love between a Mother and her Child.
And with those dreams,
here is wishing all of you a very New Year that could surely be Happy,
depending on what all of us do to make it so!
Satya Sagar is a
journalist based in Thailand. He can be reached at [email protected]