The social issues confronted by each person, no matter which race, caste, creed, and region they belong to, are far too many to be mentioned. From personal security to environmental security and from economic security to digital security, an individual remains worried or at least concerned. This burden of social issues causes stress on their social life and adversely affects the individual’s health in many ways. Hence, there is a surprise when we learn about the increased cases of hypertension, diabetes, emotional disorders, and even cardiac ailments.
Numerous surveys have been carried out by renowned institutions to project nations as happy or sad. In my opinion, most social issues confronted by people in today’s so-called modern era are common. Suppose developing nations face poverty, hunger, injustices, lack of freedom of speech, and economic hardships. Still, in that case, people in developed countries face emotional disorders, digital stresses, climate changes, pandemics, lack of family support, and rising inflation.
In some regions like the Middle East, security is the biggest concern, but in South Asia, the population explosion is monumental alongside security and poverty. Africa is plagued with civil wars and in search of its true identity because the colonial masters continue to extract the natural resources for their benefit, further posing hardship and deprivation on the already poor people.
The developed West faces family disconnect issues, which became evident during the pandemic. The adverse effects of climate change are now becoming too evident: Extremely harsh summers and winters (Canada, UK, France, and Spain), unusual floods (Spain), massive fires (Los Angeles), Typhomes and tornados (Florida and South Carolina), and several Tsumanis in Southeast Asia.
If humanity is to survive, the global stakeholders will need to sit together and strive for a social renaissance
While all of the above are causing stress on states, communities, and individuals across the globe, neopolitics (a hybrid term for geopolitics, geostrategy, and geoeconomic) has accelerated to grab maximum resources to mitigate the ill effects of the abovementioned causes of stress. This undesired race for the remainder of resources has further deepened the social issues faced by an ordinary person across the globe.
If humanity is to survive, the global stakeholders will need to sit together and strive for a social renaissance. The Creator, Allah Almighty, has designed this universe to feed, clothe, and house over 100 billion people, if not more, whereas the world’s population is still around eight billion. Therefore, there is no reason that nearly ten per cent should sleep hungry at nite, and almost 1.6 billion people remain homeless across the globe. This is unacceptable by any standards, be it from the perspective of the developed West or the deprived South. Hence, a social renaissance is the need of the hour across the globe so that no individual sleeps hungry and without shelter at night. On this, the realist will immediately jump to the roof, saying it is impossible to feed one at the cost of the other. The answer lies in Bismark’s “Politics is the art of the possible” and Sun Tzu’s “Win wars without fighting.”
If the global stakeholders only stop wars for fifty years to resolve the provision of basic amenities to the entire world’s population, my dream of seeing a social renaissance to feed, clothe, and house each person will come true. I am not restricting the states to compete for progress and development, but only without physical violence. Once everybody is fed well and more significant issues like climate change, pandemics, energy, and inflation have been taken care of, one would not even feel like fighting a war but strive for peaceful resolutions of the protracted conflicts.
As a social sciences student, I fully understand that the world is not ideal and that the rich will never share their bounties with the poor. However, one must realize that the Creator did not intend to keep its creations in this state forever. He is only testing the two: the rich and famous for their deeds and the poor for their patience and acts. One can see the pattern of Allah’s Doings in His ways of testing: the rich lose lives and property to natural disasters, but the poor are in poverty, hunger, and cold nights.
Perhaps it is time to make serious efforts for a social renaissance to ensure a sustainable human race. It is time to compensate the poor for lacking basic amenities and the rich for lacking emotional stability. Only a few game changers are required at the global level who would matter the most. China’s Xi Jinping has taken the lead with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has started to show results with the development of infrastructures that are changing the lives of ordinary people in different regions. More on this, perhaps in the coming weeks, In Sha Allah.
The writer of this article has authored three international books: “Nuclear Deterrence and Conflict Management Between India and Pakistan” “South Asia Needs Hybrid Peace” and “Understanding Sun Tzu and the Art of Hybrid War.”