WORLD PEACE: No to intentional cataclysm in a globalizing world

‘‘There would have been no Allied victory without the sacred alliance of the volunteers, without the input of other peoples, without foreigners, without blacks and other riflemen. This war was fought together to defend the universal values and ideals of peace and justice. It was the expression of a shared vision of mankind and the world. In the name of this vision, we fought side by side. This vision was respectful of our differences, and of the infinite diversity of peoples, cultures, religions and civilizations. Such vision recognizes that each of us has an equal right to dignity. The exemplary solidarity that prevailed remains a precious lesson that we must perpetuate and pass on to future generations, to avoid the errors of the past’’.

These words of high moral standards are those of a statesman of great stature, avowed experience, who cannot be accused of neither excessive militarism, unrealistic pacifism, blissful neutrality nor outright anti-Western sentiment.

By presenting peace and justice as two universal values and ideals, values and ideals which, it should be pointed out, are very often jeopardized from the West; the President of the Republic of Cameroon, His Excellency Paul Biya reminded the hegemonic ambitions nostalgic of the bygone days of colonial domination, the memories struck by a deliberately selective amnesia, and finally the ideologies of monopoly and discrimination, of the causes and consequences of the human tragedies of the past that some people would like that it resurfaces.

The relentless struggle of powers to monopolize the territories and resources belonging to other people, and the desire of both to impose their supremacy over the entire planet, are in fact some of the causes that have led to armed confrontations, on a global scale, the events of which give rise to solemn commemorations. These opportunities to be used not for petty glorifications but as moments of profound humility and intense reflection in the face of extreme cruelty and cataclysm unleashed on humanity willfully by a handful of individuals.

And this other calamity at the moment of recognizing merit, as if the fear commonly felt in the face of danger, freezing in the cold and snow of the trenches, and death striking indiscriminately did not call for more solidarity, more fraternity and more equality, after so much suffering and sacrifice. The fact remains that once the danger had passed, the racial supremacy complex took over again, relegating to the rank of sub-humans, these foreigners of all origins and skin colors, who rushed in hundreds of thousands to the aid of distant homelands that they knew only by name, adopted homelands suddenly forgetting to the point of ingratitude the love of their adopted children, when it was time to reward the most ardent of their defenders.

However, history seems to be repeating itself once again, and as in the past, we are rapidly approaching the threshold of the intentionally globalizing cataclysm with threatening injunctions, the defamatory names, anathemas and other curses being hurled around as infallible precursors of an upcoming engagement of troops. Except that this would be one time too many. As a preventive measure, therefore, many actors on the international scene are letting the diehard warmongers know that they no longer intend to bleed themselves dry for what brings them nothing, but misery and dependence.

Unexpected and unacceptable for the advocates of a return to the civilizing mission of the yesteryear, responsible and salutary for the architects of a new world order based on equality and solidarity  ,this geopolitical and geostrategic positioning of the global South appears to be the most plausible of the medications likely to save the world from its frequent and violent convulsive attacks engendered by pride, intemperance and insatiability, three characteristics that make up egocentrism and immediacy.

By dissociating oneself from those who prefer the peace of cemeteries to the peace of the living, the presence of the world, the presence of our world, inspired only by the calm rhythm of fraternity and the gentle clarity of timelessness, that will be able to outline a brighter horizon for the future of humanity, because humanity will finally have learned the lesson of the tragic errors of the past.