Before commenting very briefly on recent happenings, let me make a tiny announcement, hoping that at least some will see it as good news. On October 2 this year – Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, which India celebrates as Gandhi Jayanti – a new website will be launched.
To be called weareonehumanity.org, this new site will replace himmat.net. I plan to blog regularly on it – once in two weeks or even, inshallah, once a week. Happily, the new site will contain other features as well, including blogs by some penetrating observers of our world.
Also on October 2, a Wednesday, an hour-long webinar will celebrate and discuss the launch of weareonehumanity.org. This webinar will begin at 11 a.m. Eastern US time (8:30 p.m. IST; 5 p.m. CET; 4 p.m. in the UK.) Those wishing to join can register here.
The new site – weareonehumanity.org – will be owned by “We Are One Humanity Inc,” a not-for-profit organization recently set up in the U.S. I have the privilege of serving WAOH as honorary president and will also serve as the honorary editor of weareonehumanity.org.
Fortunately, some truly wonderful individuals constitute the We Are One Humanity board.
Happily again, the acronym WAOH sounds like WOW! It is close also to “Wah, Wah!” which in Hindi or Urdu is an exclamation for delight or appreciation. No doubt weareonehumanity.org will address hurtful realities, but a group of men and women coming together to underline the truth that all of us on planet earth are one humanity may be viewed as cause for celebration.
WAOH’s purpose, as declared in its document of incorporation, is “to foster friendship, trust, equality, and mutual respectamong the peoples and nations of humankind.”
In the middle of the last century, after World War II ended, virtually every nation signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which contained these opening articles:
“Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
“Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status…”
When embraced in the 1980s by nations in eastern Europe, the norms of democracy, equality, and goodwill received a fresh boost. Our 21st century, however, has seen a return of the goal of supremacy for some section or sections of humanity and the inferiority of other sections, and a return also of the appeal of strong-man rule.
Rights and freedoms have been restricted in several nations. Moreover, violence and war have been unleashed. The need to realize that all of us are one humanity is more pressing than ever.
The Middle East’s horrendous conflict is unbearable. Or it should be. The attack on Israel of October 7, 2023 occurred TEN MONTHS ago. In reprisal, children in Gaza are still being bombed to death almost every day. Russia invaded Ukraine more than two years and five months ago, yet no end is visible of the war that resulted, which continues, day after day, to kill or maim Ukrainians and Russians and destroy property.
Neither conflict will end without the involvement of other nations, without, in fact, the involvement of the peoples of our world.
WAOH’s website, weareonehumanity.org, will among other things
Aim to inform the peoples of Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Pacific, Europe and the rest of the planet about one another;
Defend democracy and its institutions in India, the U.S., and elsewhere;
Defend the freedoms of speech, thought, belief, and expression;
Oppose notions of the supremacy of some section or sections of humanity and the inferiority of other sections;
Present words by poets or thinkers that can strengthen our spirits.
Offer a wonderful musical piece about all of humanity being one. Rendered in a combination of English and Tamil, the piece is based on an ancient Tamil verse.
Give viewers the chance to comment on what they read.
If they have the stamina or interest, viewers of weareonehumanity.org will also be able to look there at any of around a hundred blogs I have written at himmat.net in the last five years or so!
With time, other features will be added.
I hope that from October 2 onwards those who’ve been generously looking at my blog at himmat.net will go to weareonehumanity.org and encourage their friends to do likewise. I don’t think they will be disappointed.
The killing in Tehran by Israel of Hamas’s top political leader Ismail Haniyeh, and Israel’s claim that it had killed Hamas’s military chief, Mohammed Deif, in Gaza on July 13, will test the delicate semi-restraint shown thus far by the region’s bitter combatants. Iran, Hezbollah, and Israel have all used portions of their firepower but have been careful about unleashing an even wilder war. Haniyeh’s elimination in Iran’s capital, right after he attended the inauguration of the new Iranian president, is a humiliation that Iran would want to avenge. Tel Aviv, on its part, appears to see Iran’s capacities as a menace that shouldn’t exist.
The death by stabbing in a dance class of three very young girls in Northwest England, caused by a 17-year-old suspect with a Rwandan background, was a searing confirmation of the madness that sadly is part of our world. The ultimate suffering of innocent sweet ones is very hard to take. May it warn all of us, of every race and nation, of the runaway nature of anger and blame.
In the U.S., meanwhile, the likely Trump v. Harris race is beginning to look extremely interesting. The certainty of much of the world that Trump would re-enter the White House seems to have evaporated.