Past, Present and Future

I have heard of several euphemistic references to global wars. The most interesting and jocular reference being that “world wars were fought in the hallowed playground of Eton”. It is a sarcastic remark about the profile of armed forces in Britain, which was swelled by manor-born aristocracy. This invidious remark must have cropped up during the world wars. The idiom that future wars are fought in the marketplaces had eulogized the globalisation process that took concrete shape in the mid-199s. The latest credo is attributing future global friction to the net or e-world.

Let me explain this obtuse reference. You guessed it right: I am going to talk about Google vs China, which may erupt into a major standoff between the two countries, i.e. India and China, which will have to share the responsibility for reshaping the New World Order. The allegation that the Chinese authorities have hacked into the Google-operated gmails to zero in on the human rights activists in China has the potential to precipitate into a conflict despite the fact that the economic and political relationship between the two countries is at an all-time high. Close on the heels is the reported hacking of computer systems at the Indian Prime Minister’s office by the Chinese. Indeed, it did not create much cacophony in the media possibly because both the countries must have decided to downplay the event. The media seems to have lost the steam when some stiff and stern advices were doled out to them against misreporting (the government thinks so) about the incursions at the India–China border. But the subsequent veiled space between the two countries or shadowboxing lent some credence to the fact that both the nations were maintaining restraints and caution while attacking each other.

Let us now take the Google’s earth search that seems to be receiving scathing criticisms from some quarters for right or wrong reasons. Corporations, which used to unleash bitter wars to poach others territories or to safeguard their own, are now taking extra care to build firewalls in their arsenal to ward off predators from hacking into their critical database. Their apprehensions are not entirely misplaced. The recent happenings in the US about hedge companies hacking into the closely-held databases of major corporations has sent shock waves across the world and cast doubts as to how transparent these financial intermediaries are working. It is a matter of concern that some Sri Lankan and Indian whiz-kids were involved in that criminal offence.

The other day, someone has asked me what is in common between 9/11 and 26/11. I told him that both the inhuman crimes were perpetrated by outlaws in the same month. The listener’s sarcastic smile told me that I was very wide off from the answer that he had expected from me. According to him, these attacks and several others that have followed and are still happening have catapulted the demand for security systems. Look at the ads that are pouring from net to print to electronic media of equipment and systems that can protect you, your systems and your locality. I was told by him that almost every house in an upmarket area has a sound of digitally-operated and software- embedded hi-tech security system. An unofficial data dished out by my friend indicate that the market for such equipment/ devices aggregate to over US$7 billion annually. And who are the hawkers of these technologies? They are from various nationalities, such as Israel, US, Sweden, Denmark and what have you. Indeed, it is a booming business and no wonder many large corporations in India and abroad are now entering this field.

The other day, I read the ad campaign of a wooden cabinet maker doled out in a handbill. He claimed himself to be the best supplier of such goods in India with several decades of proven track record. One tall claim that he attributed to his product was that he can help store endless number of paper files in the cabinet without being moth eaten or destroyed by vagaries of time. The punch line was yet to come: "It is free from hacking and the content stored in the cabinets can be safely away from the hands of your competitors and corporate enemies." That reminded me of an economic cliché "anachronistic coexistence of the most primitive and most modern". Is that an answer to our war against hacking or cybercrimes? I do not know and I hope it should not be. We have to put in place a system and an attitude that instruct us to mind our own business and do not bother about others. Does it sound like instructions straight from your simple and frugal teacher of moral science? The next question is whether such simpleton breeds have any relevance in this complex world? One can write several theses and dissertations on the subject and still grope in darkness. One can agree, disagree and take a middle path and pour out perspectives based on our bent of mind and type of aggression and passiveness that we combine in ourselves.

But let us call spade a spade. When world trade towers collapsed, marauders had a free time in urban Mumbai and a dozen people took Delhi streets to ransom letting loose their atavistic instincts using modern gadgets and satellite links, we had renounced and abhorred violence. But our responses may be qualitatively different against nations using such means to further trade, financial and military interests by hacking into other’s territory. We tend to forget what a frail man who lived and died in the last centuries –Mahatma Gandhi – said, "Means should justify the end." The words in the string are as simple as the man who spoke them. But beyond the surfeit of the simplicity, we know how powerful those words are. It is not rhetoric but a message to the whole world to follow simpler and contented life and respect each other’s existence and space.

I often wonder what will be the life some fifty years from now. I thought about my studies, my career, my business, my family et al. The least that came to my mind was safety, security and scare. Could our successors have that privilege? Could they meander through the meadows and streams as freely as our generation could do it? Could they watch with wonder how the bees suck honey from foliages and fresh flowers? Could they hitchhike to forlorn places, forests and mountains? Could they walk down along with their friends to the schools a furlong away from their houses sharing innocent jokes and letting loose their pardonable mischief?

We should not rob them of basic happiness of life. We have to act now with conviction and courage. History is behind us to guide us, direct us, correct us and cajole us. Formation of the United Nations was an after-effect of two world wars, emergence of World Trade Organisation was to eschew market anarchy and to provide for rule-based trading. Sooner or later, we have to have a strong and rule-based organisation with reciprocity for warding off e-wars and cybercrimes. It is not for us but for the generations to come to make planet earth more livable to them. That is what we owe to the future.

I do not want to go on endlessly on this. But sometimes, I wonder if some of our great grandchildren pose the question why did we add to the complexities and unhappiness of their lives, what answers could be there from our side. They may not be referring to climate change alone; they will dissect the social systems, economic paradigms, complex relations in family, nation and world. Can we think of an answer for that? We need not have to worry about phrasing an answer now. Like Keynes said, "In the long run, we are all dead."