Imagine

Vasu Reddy from Chicago
Vasureddy@aol.com

When the II world war ended in 1945 the European nations and the USSR were not cohesive, the Germans just about invaded or fought with all their neighbors, and the Russians formed a block of Eastern European nations as communist controlled USSR block.  When you turn to 2016 there is no USSR, or Eastern communist block of countries, and now exists a massive European Union which includes Germany (East and West together now as they were until the Berlin wall was torn down).  Just imagine what people were staring at when the second world war ended and the destruction that was bestowed upon them; communism, nuclear bombs, rebuilding, concentration camps, and whatever was the leftover impact of the war.  It is really unfathomable to think people would think of EU as a block with common economic structures and common people goals.

USA and Japan were at the opposite ends fighting a war, and war only ended when USA nuked Japan.  Today USA and Japan are best friends and partners.  Be it EU or USA and Japan; or any other adversaries who fought against each other, many of these countries have fostered economics and people, rather than old war wounds.  No one has forgotten the WW or other wars, but countries went on to look at the benefits of working together, trade, innovation and knowledge sharing as a better path to move forward.  For a while after the war, the old USSR and the communist nations, really were not willing to become a part of the advancements of the rest of the developed world, but with the formation of EU and dissolution of USSR, many of these countries have quickly converged as democracies and have become partners in the EU. Language, religion, color or creed or any other philosophical or political differences are overshadowed by democracy and common sense.  Whatever each of these nations represent, the overall people issues have been taking precedence with governance.

While much of the world got tired of war after end of WW II in 1945, and formation of EU, many trade and economic blocks, many instances of reason and need taking precedence to anger, there is still a lot of animosity and anger in the world.  It really doesn’t matter what fosters the hatred, but it exists and constantly crates unstable environment all around the world.  It really makes no difference to the hatred, as it can attack anywhere in the world.  It is no longer just war, but terror has become a way to disrupt and discourage populations.  Just imagine genocide in 2016?  It is happening in more than one place and nothing can stop it from happening.  We kill and hurt our fellow beings, and whatever reason it is simply not human.

The Indian subcontinent got divided just after the WW II, in 1947 and got further divided in 1971.  There has never been peace in the region since the division when the British were forced out of India.  The terror and infiltrations and anger and disenchantment with each other is like having a snack in the subcontinent.  Happening all the time and constantly being plotted.  There are elected governments, but no one is controlling the terrorists.  The focus on being bitter is by far outweighing the reasoning of national development.  National development, human growth and peace are far from being a reality, and nothing is being learnt from the lesson of the war and the aftermath.

If we use EU as an example, much of the infrastructure was destroyed by the end of WW II.  Europe did not miss a beat in rebuilding and continuously remaining a leader in world.  Once the soviet bloc was dismantled many of the lesser developed nations did not miss out on development and joining the EU to foster their economic engine and trade.  None of these nations or people have given up their identity, religion or way of life.  They simply embraced the way to foster development and trade, wand what was best for the nation.  It proves and demonstrates that it really doesn’t require a lot of time for nations to rebuild and get back on track of development; if the people, policies and government wants to put people first.

With history of Europe and nations coming together, rebuilding and never lagging behind in growth and development, there is no reason for Indian subcontinent not to do the same.  In reality the Indian subcontinent has a lot more in common than the EU, and also a lot more to gain in coming together, rather than countries spending time on military and terror and negativity.  They really have a lot more in common with people, language, food, habits and boundaries than most places on earth.  More than anything else they have more common need with infrastructure, education, human training, medicine, agriculture and poverty.  The money spent on military (at least most of it) and terror and egging each other, can be spent on human development and civilian needs.  Just imagine the EU like situation with the Indian subcontinent, where people, religions, languages, food, traditions, economics and more over peace, all of it working together for all people of the region.  It would be a blockbuster every day.

As the Beatles sang, “Imagine”.