I have rarely been more disturbed. But, above all, rarely has anything shaken my beliefs as the image of little Syrian child Aylan Kurdi’s body washed upon the shores of the Turkish coast. I do not know if what I felt can be described as horror or shock but I am certain that it surely was profound grief.
Many years ago, when I interacted with the Afghan diaspora that had left Afghanistan post-war or with the Iranian diaspora that had to leave the country post-Islamic revolution, it was a sad and somewhat horrifying experience. What made it more horrifying then was the fact that there was a serious threat of the Talibanisation of Pakistan and an outright Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) takeover in many parts of it. So, it filled me with fear, fear for loved dear ones. I thought of the enormity of times when one may be forced to leave his place of residence for destinations unknown and future uncertain.
But what Aylan Kurdi’s death has done to me is more than anything I felt then. As I have said above, it has made me review my beliefs. I have believed in pragmatism when it comes to international politics. I, even when I could not relate to it, could understand the reasons behind Iraq’s invasion: Saddam invaded Kuwait. I could decipher why Afghanistan dragged the Russians, Pakistanis and US in. I can even understand why the Saudis are oversensitive about Yemen. I understand why dominant powers have waged wars. I even understand the necessity of such adventures or misadventures on the overall stability. But now, I am not so sure. For this image brings to fore the most horrible of human tragedies in wars.
A lot has been said about Europe’s (particularly the UK and France) response to the refugee crisis. But rarely has there been any talk of British and French adventures in the region a century or so back that led to the birth of the perpetual chaos that the region is dealing with even today. And rarely has anything been said about the economic divide that exists in the world, a divide whose foundations are laid on many of these conflicts and a divide that is still favouring the haves over have-nots, even in the fallout of this crisis. The more resourceful migrants are aspiring to be in Europe (paying as much as 6,000 Euros to human smugglers) while the less resourceful are forced into refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.
It is troubling that the humanity shown by Europe in this crisis is coming from countries with no colonial past and the colonial powers that created this crisis over the centuries are acting with arrogance and disdain. But it is more troubling that these very colonial powers instigated and initiated the conflict in Syria and Libya this time around, when the US and Germans were reluctant to join any such misadventure. This crisis is also a testament to US leadership (or lack of) whose hands-off and cut and run attitude in Iraq created the monster of Islamic State (IS) that added the most dangerous dimension to this whole conflict. And if that were not enough, it could not control the arming of rebels in Syria. Its ability to curtail the misadventures of its European and Arab allies, its inability to stand through the consequences of its actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, above all, the impression it gave of disengaging from the world in the name of a post-US world has made the world a more dangerous place. The US’s conduct in the last decade or so has been a disappointment for people who had hoped for a fair world centred on US ideals post-Soviet Union.
There is no doubt that with the ever changing economic, political and demographic realities of the world there will be chaos. The declining powers that built large parts of their economies on colonisation are seeing their economies declining and their share of real wealth shrinking. At the same time, they have not come across any sustainable means to make their economies more productive. In this environment, the powerful interests there will compel the governments to indulge in misadventures. Then we are seeing the economic rise of Asia centred on globalisation that brings with it economic volatility. And then globalisation itself is creating a two-tiered world within societies with an ever-increasing gap between the haves and have-nots. Then there is Africa awakening to economic opportunity. And last, but certainly not the least, the region from India to Morocco that had been a dominant player in global politics for centuries and was reduced to nothingness in the last two centuries is trying to redefine or rediscover its identity. This all is an ideal recipe for chaos. This will invite room for intervention on the part of powerful vested interests. The challenge for the world is to come up with a coherent, fair way to ensure minimal, fair and peace-centric intervention. Maybe because of the state of grief I am in, I have little hope.
The author can be reached on twitter at @aalimalik