It all began when at the age of 17 I realized that the old woman sitting on the pavement going through remains of chickens outside a butcher shop in Pakistan was actually looking for something to feed her family with, that the old guard sitting outside a store shivering with cold on a January night was working hard to provide for his family, and that the nanny in a relative’s house was younger than the children she was looking after. Continue
It’s logical to assume a certain level of dissatisfaction with the world in which we live. Everything we see in the news and in newspapers is essentially bad news. The world in the 21st Century is experiencing significant problems that need to be addressed, as we all know. Every day we hear of terrorist attacks and/or religious extremism; disasters which are directly linked to climate change (or global warming, as we used to call it); the economic crises and recessions; health challenges as a result of obesity in many developed countries; armed conflicts; and territory disputes – these are just a few of the occurrences that we witness everyday around the world.
History is clear. The 20th Century was one of many challenges, including economic depressions; two world wars; genocides; and the arrival of dozens of new states into the world arena. However, in the face of all of this bad news, there is a huge ray of hope. Some call it “pragmatic optimism”. I call it viewing the world from the perspective that all change is accompanied by some level of chaos, and the world is actually a better place today than it was last year, last decade or even last century.
