How do we, the people of the globe, win battles against our common enemies?

Humanity has been victims of calamities from time immemorial. Each leaves behind in its wake
a trail of destruction in terms of men and material and long-term human sufferings of varying
intensity depending on its magnitude. Besides, threats to our existence come from man-made
disasters, environmental degradation, terrorism, diseases, hunger and poverty. All past calamities
left behind a coded message and looming threats present the same message that we ought to
decipher and heed so as to sharpen our collective wisdom and bolster the chances of our survival.
The code is not difficult to decipher. Once decoded, the message is unambiguous and simple.
The message may be clearly defined in three sentences:

1) The very existence of humanity, the most intelligent species on earth and endowed with
higher cognition and linguistic ability is under constant threats.
2) While the threats are multi-dimensional, vicious and ever-growing, man’s response is
shortsighted, inadequate and ad hoc, to say the least.
3) The earth is the only planet in the solar system hospitable to life forms, and probably the
only abode in the whole universe to support superior life form like the Homo sapiens.

Are we not therefore under moral obligation collectively to ensure safety and security of our
planet and create conditions favourable for growth and well-being of succeeding generations?
Let us examine the enormity and multi-faceted dimensions of each threat and the response of
humanity thereto as well as the prospect of our winning every battle.

Natural and man-made disasters

Following up on a tip by an amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley of Australia on 21 July 2009,

scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California have confirmed the
discovery of a new “scar” the size of the Earth in Jupiter’s South Polar Region, apparently
showing that the planet was hit by something large in recent days. The apparent impact comes
almost exactly 15 years after a comet named Shoemaker-Levy 9 struck Jupiter, ejecting blazing
fireballs, one of them being as large as the earth and churning the Jovian atmosphere into dark
storms. Jupiter’s massive gravitational pull is shielding our planet from direct hit by celestial
bodies. The possibility that one of thousands of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter rotating
round the sun may someday hit the earth is real, however small that possibility maybe as it
happened in the distant past. A powerful earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck in
the morning of 08 October 2005 many parts of Pakistan and its region of Kashmir and Indian
Jammu and Kashmir, claiming tens of thousands of human lives as well as causing immense
human sufferings and colossal damage to properties. A few days back in the same year, hurricane
Katrina and Rita wreaked havoc in quick succession the southeastern coast of the US. Loss of
lives and properties as well as human miseries laid bare the grim reality how vulnerable and ill-
prepared even the most economically and scientifically advanced country in the world was.
While natural calamities like earthquake, cyclone or tornado, forest fire etc. are occurring off and
on, man-made disasters seem to be happening more frequently. Major man-made disasters that
struck recently like release of toxic fumes in Bhopal in India in 1984, melt-down of Chernobyl
nuclear reactor in Kiev, Ukraine in 1986, that in Brazil in 1987 and two in Japan in 1994 and
2004 at Tokaimura and Mihama respectively, and oil-spill from mega oil-tankers like Exxon
Valdez in 1989, Mega Borg in 1990 and Erika and Haven more recently are illustrative of man’s
inability to ensure full safety and security of nuclear reactors and safe passage of oil tankers and
other ships carrying hazardous chemicals across seas. Man’s response to disasters due to its own
ignorance and callousness is equally appalling. Global warming due to greenhouse effect, ozone-
layer depletion (mitigation process is going on satisfactorily), dumping of toxic wastes including
nuclear waste into land, river and sea, deforestation, loss of biodiversity or extinction of species
due to human activities, particularly attempts at tampering with nature are depleting as well as
degrading natural resource-base like quality of air and water, dwindling of forest, hills and
mountains, wetlands and loss of bio-diversity. Over exploration of natural resources and
demographic pressure are major contributory factors for dwindling of arable land, forest, fish and
other natural resources on which future survival and well being of humanity depend.

Diseases and other scourges

The most formidable threat to human existence comes from microbes. According to notable
scientists in the field of life sciences, the much-touted fight against bacteria that was believed to
be won is in fact lost because many hitherto easily treatable bacterial infections are presently
hardly responding to common antibiotics. As for example, infections by resistant strains of
staphylococcus auras (known as MRSA), one of the most common bacteria, which were treatable
previously, even with simple penicillin, do not now respond to available antibiotics except
vancomycin. While new antibiotics keep on coming to markets, resistant strains are proliferating
almost in equal proportion. It seems it is an arduous and long drawn-out fight where man can be
complacent only at its own peril. At a time when World Health Organisation was celebrating at
its headquarters its triumph over and complete eradication of small pox caused by vaccinia virus
from the surface of earth, new viruses mutated, swapped each others genes, became virulent and
jumped over inter-species barriers to claim more human lives, albeit in a moderate scale to date.
This may not be the case in future. Since the outbreak of influenza pandemic in 1918, the
probability of another one of similar magnitude or more has never been as real as it is today.
There has been much talk within the scientific community about a catastrophic pandemic of
avian flu by a virus named H5N1 originating from South-east Asia that is estimated to possess
the lethal power to kill more than 150 million people because air travel by tens of millions of
passengers annually would make contagion extremely difficult to contain. Now the swine flu
virus H1N1 poses similar or greater threats because of unpredictability of influenza viruses. In
the aftermath of such pandemics as stated above, healthcare infrastructure all over the world will
inevitably collapse as we can surmise from past experiences, and overwhelming number of
victims will be left writhing in pain, agony and distress, and at the mercy of natural healing
process.
Besides the above, hunger, poverty and malnutrition are eating into the vitals of more than half
of world’s 6.5 billion people. Deprivation is perhaps the most fertile ground for growth of
militancy, terrorism and restive people around the globe. What is humanity doing to meet the
challenges posed by all these enemies of mankind? Very little indeed! Moreover, men have been
creating conditions where they remain engaged in internecine wars, conflicts and bloodletting
communal violence. Nuclear cataclysm in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a stark reminder of men’s
inherent lust for power and hatred against one another. Their activities are contributing even to
the intensification and worsening of conditions favourable for intensified and more widespread
natural calamities. All human beings are bound by common abode and the same destiny, and
share common resources as well as common threats. Why can’t they put up a united front against
all enemies instead of putting up disjointed and isolated fights? The answer lies in a grim reality
that humanity feels divided by race, religion, cast and creed and gender. The genesis of division
along each factor is briefly narrated along with an explanation why the perception of division is
misguided.

Racism

Presently, I am living in the United States of America. Undeniably, it is the greatest power on
earth, the largest economy and has the most enlightened society, the glaring proof of which is the
election of a non-white male Barack H. Obama the President of the US. Nevertheless, racial
discrimination exists in hospitals, educational institutions, in public facilities including
swimming pools and social life. Non-white eminent personalities also fall victims of this social
scourge. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was recently arrested for no apparent reason,
particularly when the police officer had come to know professor’s identity. Race is still a social
and political issue in the US that can draw even the President to controversy as we are witnessing
debate in all news media involving President Barack Obama, Professor Gates and police sergeant
Crowley and his supporters. In other countries, the situation is far worse. In Australia, Indians,
particularly students are being attacked, killed and tortured. It is a pity that despite scientific,
economic, social and cultural advancement globally, race is still a powerful destabilising force
against world peace and if played up wrongly can generate intolerance and even hatred pitting
one race against the other.

Leaving aside details, it is generally assumed that people of one race differ from those of another
in physical features. Let us compare physical features of American Whites with that of African
Americans, and filter out myths from facts. Africans in general have black or dark skin; have
wider nose; thick and curly hair follicle and protruding jaw, unlike the whites. Asians barring
Mongoloid groups have similar physical features except that their skin is of mixed colour. The
average altitude of Africa is about 2,200 ft. above sea-level. Many of the countries in the
continent have altitude between 3,000 and 7,000 ft. above sea level and locations near the
equator. Air at high altitude, like the one in Africa, is thinner than that at sea-level and as such
can filter out less ultraviolet rays. Moreover, sun-rays falling on places at higher altitude and near
equator are more piercing or penetrating than they are at sea-level and away from the equator. To
circumvent the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays of the sun, Africans have dark pigmentation
called melanin in the layers of their skin. On the other hand, human populations living in plane
land at sea-level and particularly away from the equator have fair skin without dark pigment out
of survival needs to absorb sun rays to produce vitamin D. Again, chests of Africans are slightly
bigger, their noses wider to enable them to inhale more air to get sufficient oxygen to
compensate for thin air. Very thick and curly hair provides them protection against sun’s
ultraviolet rays. In spite of differences in physical features, humans are still homogeneous
genetically. To confirm my statement, I quote Craig Venter of Celera Genomics, who vastly
accelerated the process of sequencing ‘human genome’ till its completion in 2000, alongside the
multinational human genome project led by Francis Collins. He said, “The genetic variation
among human populations (6.5 billion now) is much less than that of a single troop of
chimpanzee.” He further said, “Racial superiority is a myth.” One may question why the African
Americans living in the US or many Whites living in Africa are not changing in respect of colour
of their skin. The answer to this question lies in the fact that evolution takes effect slowly and it
may take millennia for visible change to take place. Recognising that human beings are more
akin to each other than we tend to think and realising that in some cases genetic variation
between two White males may be more than that between one male White and an African
American male or an Indian American male, study of evolution, particularly simple facts about
race may be made compulsory and part of curriculum of all primary and secondary schools, both
public and private so as to dispel gradually racial prejudice. Awareness campaign may be
launched in the US. Other countries may follow suit, though it is understood that political and
religious considerations may come in the way to thwart such attempts.

Religion

Religions divide humanity much more than anything else. If the religions are true, eternal and
blissful, there should be unanimity among them, not contention and acrimony. Why should the
followers of one religion clash with the followers of another to establish one’s superiority over
the other when believers are supposed to be peaceful as they proclaim? Are few or all religions
God-ordained? Even if a few religions are ordained by God, their followers at least leave any
perceived threats to their religions from so-called non-believers to God alone because it is His
cause to protect His religions from threats. He is omnipotent as the faithful believe. Why are then
some fanatics taking up God’s cause upon them and are taking the innocent’s lives in their
attempt to pursue their goals? Why can’t they believe as God had ordained religions, He will
undo at the right moment perceived threats to any ordained religion in the twinkling of an eye
with the infinite power at His command should He in His infinite wisdom so wishes? Are not the
believers therefore misguided to arrogate to themselves the right to preempt actions that God will
take in good time? Fanatics are so obsessed with their ill-perceived goals that they cannot realise
that their actions only cause blood-letting of innocent people in the name of religion. It would be
a travesty of faith, if the faithful cannot tolerate each other irrespective of religious beliefs, let
alone embrace each other, which should have been the norm for devout people purported to be
peaceful.

I do not wish to give my personal opinion on religions and God, but state some facts for
thoughts. Just as Copernicus cast the earth out of the centre of the universe, so the theory of
evolution has displaced humans as the epicenter of the physical world and rejected the dictum
that every living and non-living beings were created for the benefit of and use by humans.
Darwin's work had a tremendous impact on religious thought. Many people strongly opposed the
idea of evolution because it conflicted with their religious convictions. Even now, many people
refuse to accept that out of vast hereditary diversity within a given species, natural selection
blindly weeds out those individuals who have less favourable traits for survival. Many scientists
researching on genetics, cell biology and molecular biology and virology etc. say evolution is
true science based on scientific investigations and term ‘biology’ without evolution is like
physics before Newton.

God

God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. Can God do everything even being omnipotent?
Can He tell a lie? Can He retract his promises? Can He be evil? Can He create a stone that He
can’t lift? Religious books and believers say the answers to the first three questions are simply
no. However, they are silent about the last question and some other questions that generally come
to our mind. Being omnipresent, is He present inside the devil and evil spirits? He is the creator
of all things in the universe both good and bad, good spirits and evil spirits, truths and lies and all
pairs of positives and negatives attributes. Then why can’t He tell a lie when He himself created
it. When He created both pledge and denunciation, why can’t He denounce His pledges? Being
omniscient, He knows everything, every event, past, present and future, and He is also the most
understanding. Does He understand that creating all virtues and vices, good and evil and
preordaining every event, particularly destiny of every human, it is against the natural justice to
create heaven and hell so as to reward the pious making their after-life abode in heaven for
eternity and condemn the sinful to eternal damnation in hell? He created the devil with all the
attributes of evil- dreadful, grotesque, satanic, monstrous and gruesome because He could not be
evil. Then why did the faithful assign God with the most horrifying attributes also, which are
essentially the attributes of the devil, so that every human being is so terrified that he or she
follows injunctions what his religious books say? How can we be sure that religious books are
God-ordained? As for example, holy Quran was written after collecting injunctions from
utterances of ardent followers many years after Prophet Muhammad had died. The same is true
for other religious books. Religions identify God mostly with manly attributes. That is why God
is HE. Because God is He, women are discriminated against on earth as well as in heaven,
though they are not responsible for their birth, which is purely a probabilistic occurrence or an
incident of 50-50 chance.
An alternative perception of God

All these simple logical arguments point to a simple conclusion. By assigning God with
attributes, we are in fact confining His omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience. We may
think of God differently. He is neither good nor bad, neither male nor female nor neutre and
neither virtuous nor vicious. He may be thought of as nothing of the sort; He is the combination
of everything and is everything individually. Without quoting any religious books or views of
philosophers, God may be conceived of an all-pervading power or in scientific term energy, a
self-conscious force, which manifested itself in the form of the universe we observe, which is
self-conscious. Consciousness is all-pervading; it is everywhere, from human-beings to animals
to all living beings down to all non-living beings. Quantum mechanics admits of
interconnectedness, which is known as quantum entanglement. All particles behave in a manner
that is characteristic of their having some distinct properties, which we may only term as
consciousness. God does not intervene because He is the sum total of all events of past, present
and future, which includes all objects stationary and moving. Everything is conscious in its own
way, we are not aware of.

Believers may say this explanation, bereft of religions, particularly heaven and hell (reward and
punishment), may encourage humans to resort to all kinds of immoral and sinful acts. Without
going through philosophical discourse, it can be emphasised that morality stemming from
rational behaviour had existed long before religions stepped in the world stage. The biological
mandate of every member of a particular species is to gather food for growth and reproduce. For
human species or Homo sapiens, these two fundamental traits now boil down to ‘money’ and
‘sex’ and all crimes result from one or the other or the combination of both. Humans are
restrained in their approach to these fundamental traits except for some members who have
mutated genes compelling them to act unrestrained. During the long history of hominids’ journey
until the advent of city-based civilisations in recent past compared to millions of years of human
species’ evolutionary history, cooperation in choosing mates for each other as opposed to
animals’ behavior and the collection of food by males for their females who remained busy in
giving birth to offsprings gave them huge advantage over other species and helped them increase
their number by a huge margin in their evolutionary milieu. The trait ‘restraint’ in sharing food
with others and the similar trait in choosing mate which is characteristic of cooperation have
been encoded in the genes of Homo sapiens. Therefore, rational behaviours had been the norms
in society rather than exception long before religions were preached.

Is humanity equal to the challenge?

A question may naturally arise against the backdrop of multiplicity of threats. Is the humanity
capable of overcoming the threats? The answer is both yes and no, and not either or. Total global
wealth has quadrupled in just fifty years. Enormous advancement has been made in science and
technology, particularly in understanding the universe, the bevaviour of sub-atomic particles and
in the field of life sciences including medicine, surgery, microbiology, biochemistry, and genetics
and such other branches of knowledge as computer science and technology, energy, space
exploration and development-related engineering and technology. While 50 billion dollars can
lift children of all developing countries from the trap of hunger and poverty, close to 30 times
this sum (about $ 1.464 trillion) was spent globally in 2008 for defence. The US spent US dollar
607 billion in defence (its spending increased because of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan), China
spent 84.9 coming to second position, France third with 65.7 billion, UK forth with 65.3 and in
this order come Russian Federation (58.6 billion), Germany, Japan, Italy, Saudi Arabia and India
(30 billion). Pakistan is increasing its spending to US$ 5 billion despite its comparatively small
economy and poor economic performance. The amounts account for between 4 and 5 of the GDP
of these countries. On the contrary, most of the developed countries are reluctant even to set
aside 0.7% of GDP for ODA despite the fact that at the Earth Summit at RIO in 1992, the
developed countries pledged to contribute 0.7% of GDP to ODA. The United Nations was
created in 1945 replacing the moribund League of Nations with the noble goal of employing
collective power and wisdom through the UN in all international affairs to rid the world of Third
World War as well as major wars and conflicts. But the goals still remain unmet while the UN is
sometimes bypassed by big powers to serve their national interests. Humanity has the
wherewithal to employ superior strategies and tactics based on frontiers of knowledge and rich
past experiences to meet squarely any kind of challenge provided all nations can muster political
will to cooperate closely and draw on each other experiences and best practices, and employ
combined wisdom and appropriate technologies setting aside conflicting national interests.

I believe humanity can find much more common denominators to unite than it tends to think it
has to divide. As for example, all religions propagate the eternal message of love for humanity
and compassion for all living beings as well as all other great virtues that humanity embodies. As
regards races, there is basically no difference between one race and the other as discussed earlier.
It is the conviction of scientists and philosophers alike that humanity is well-placed in terms of
resources, experience and expertise to triumph over any imaginable threat, but not yet prepared
intellectually as one species to put up a decisive fight because its formidable strength and
wisdom have been fragmented due to divisions along race, religion, cast and creed, gender,
political power and wealth. However, rational and right-minded people all over the world can
persuade their political leaders to muster political will and courage to resolve intra and inter-state
differences through dialogue and draw on best scientific knowledge, technologies and expertise
from each other experiences and best practices to put up a joint front against the common
enemies of humanity, that is, hunger, poverty, malnutrition, diseases, terrorism, natural and man-
made disasters and environmental degradation.

If the humanity is to survive and progress and prosper together, it has to overcome divisions
along race, religion, cast and creed, gender and class based on wealth and political power. With
this end in view, I had drafted a UN resolution and forwarded the same to former UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan for placing it before the UNGA.

The resolution is as follows:

We, the people of the globe,
Reiterating that humanity or Homo sapiens is one species and that it had evolved in Africa and
split off to various parts of the world,
Recognizing that 99.9 % of human genes are identical,
Noting that the very small variation in physical features is due to geographical locations with
diverse environmental conditions where our ancestors settled in various parts of the world in
search of food and gradual mutations,
Drawing on experiences from episodes around the globe and history that although religious
doctrines were preached for the good of humanity, they were somewhat divisive in practice and
they were often exploited by shortsighted people to achieve their own selfish and parochial goals
leading to bloodshed,
Admitting that all faiths and established religions are personal beliefs and that atheism and
agnosticism, which are also personal beliefs, should coexist with religious beliefs peacefully as
do monotheism and polytheism,
Determining that egoistic and selfish attitude emanating from base instincts of the id and lack of
respect and consideration for one another is one of the major causes of wars among nations,
internal conflicts and personal animosity among political leaders,
Further recognizing that mankind has a common destiny and a celestial object like an asteroid
can wipe out its existence,
Further noting that a human being cannot be an enemy of another human being and that
humanity’s common enemies are hunger, poverty, malnutrition, diseases, natural and man-made
disasters, terrorism and environmental degradation,
Acknowledging that no one is responsible for his birth, which, however, determines his race,
ethnicity, cast and creed and gender, and in almost all cases his or her religious belief,
Believing that gender equality is the most essential and achievable goal of the humanity,
particularly to empower women and make them self-reliant,
Further believing that it is not only an indispensable prerequisite to exploit the best potentials of
the women, but also a vital instrument to fight terrorism through their active participation in
motivating their vulnerable children and achieve a peaceful world,
Further admitting that homosexuality like heterosexuality and bisexuality is a natural trait built in
our genes and as such should not be discriminated against,
Realizing that apart from divisions among human beings based on religion, race, ethnicity, cast
and creed and gender, class exists in societies based on wealth and political power,
Further realizing that rule of law, protection of human rights, social justice and democracy are
major practical steps to achieve the goal of providing equal opportunity to every mankind,
Taking into account that terrorism, conflicts and social unrest emanate from deprivation, social
injustice, sense of insecurity and inequality of all kinds,
Further taking into account that all three kinds of freedom as adopted in the Millennium
Declaration: freedom from want, freedom from fear and freedom of the succeeding generations
to lead a sustainable living: and better standard of living are the best safeguards against rising
tide of movement for self determination around the globe,
Further acknowledging that globalization, if properly managed, can gradually dilute the strong
sense of nationalism and bring the international community closer together,
Visualizing that clash of perceived national interests and lack of full understanding of each others
civilizations are contributing to growing tension among nations and destabilizing world peace
and order,
Hereby agreed as follows:

• Renounce superiority of all kinds in terms of race, religion, ethnicity, caste and creed and
gender as well as class based on wealth and riches and political power.
• Establish equality of status and opportunity for every mankind in all spheres of society,
recognizing cultural and social diversity.
• Must refrain from engaging in discriminatory behavior and activities prejudicial to the
concept of equality of mankind.
• Work together to fight our common enemies – hunger, poverty, malnutrition, diseases,
natural and man-made disasters, terrorism, environmental degradation and common
threats to our very existence.
• Take a fresh vow to work together to make this earth an ideal place by establishing rule of
law, social justice and protecting human rights, where succeeding generations can make a
sustainable, wonderful, happy and satisfying living and where full potential of every
human-being can be exploited.
• Encourage and support for the emergence of watchdog bodies in every country to ensure
eradication by phases of all barriers against the equality of mankind.
• Enact laws in every country not to discriminate anyone for his or her sexual orientation
and to give equal opportunities to all irrespective of sexual orientation including rights of
homosexual couples.
• Empower women and create congenial environment for women to become self-reliant
economically, and involve them in the decision making process in the family so as to
influence the youth, particularly the boys to refrain from self-destructive activities.
• Remove gradually religious and social barriers and annul in all countries all municipal
and international laws, including all personal laws that are extra-constitutional and
discriminatory to women.
• Enact laws in every country not to discriminate anyone because of his or her faith and
treat all equally even he or she professes atheism and agnosticism.
• Introduce liberal and secular education at kindergarten and primary levels, particularly
emphasizing the equality of mankind and that religious belief is personal and should not
be politicized.
• Resort to a new kind of approach and a fresh round of dialogue among nations and
societies, the main thrust of which should be focused on recognizing the equality of
mankind, appreciating diversity of culture and tradition and finding commonality of
beliefs, values and purposes among civilizations for resolving regional and internal
conflicts.
• Apply the norms of globalization for the common good of humanity, not as a basis of
furthering national interests only.
• Construct shrines or monuments in such sites as Lake Turkana in Kenya, Olduvai Gorge
in Tanzania and Bleak Afar Triangle and Middle Awash region in Ethiopia where skeletal
remains of early hominids, that is, of our common ancestors were found.
• Create a special development fund for Africa to fulfill global obligation towards our
common ancestral home that is Africa.