Pic. credit: War for the Planet of the Apes

Surprise! Or should I say no surprise? Mr Trump is now a step away from being labelled as the most powerful man on this planet. Should he win, I wonder if he would thank the Men in Black from the lands of "SadAss" for proving his point, on the need for a new "apartheid". On the other hand, I am pretty sure that even if Trump does not win, the latter group would be certainly be thanking him more than the Malevolent God they follow, for sending more and more confused souls into their fold. Either way, it has wrongly tarnished and angered the world's largest religious group. Dangerous. For many great minds, the world is in a state of World War III. It is not a war of nations, but one of ideology and the enemy is entrenched deep within. Does this sound like a prophecy from Nostradamus? If it is, I think it is a self-fulfilling one.

Nowadays, I refrain from thanking God but thank heavens that the credit for the unfortunate Dallas and Baton Rouge killings earlier this month (July 2016) were not accredited to any race or terror group. Though attempts to label the killers as "radicalised" are still underway by the media wanting to create a bench banging story. In doing so, the world is actually ignoring a deeper festering wound that is infecting societies around the world; one of deep dormant discontent and helplessness with the growing power and greed of governance. Both the killers were ex-soldiers who decided to take matters into their own hands, to make what they thought was a point. Both must have known that they would not survive, and in their own mind, they must have justified it as though they were fighting a just battle. Media called them mentally unsound.

Such stories make international headlines when it happens in the US or any nation where even a single life has value. One can only assume how many such stories go unreported around the world, especially in the countries that are labelled as the "third world", where life is cheap and expendable.

Well, that label reminds me of the City I live in. Officially, it is the richest, most cosmopolitan, most liveable in India, and serves as home to several dollar billionaires. But, in today's context, the moon would have fewer craters than its roads. Each year billions are spent by its governing officials on building roads and probably twice as much repairing them each monsoon. It is the worst kept secret on where most of the money spent ends up. Bad roads have cost lives, probably more than what are attributed to police atrocities. The system, like in any country, designed to protect its own, even when at fault.

I was recently told of an incident that to uplift the quality of life of tribals in Arunachal Pradesh, a Government officer recommended that money should be spent on creating fish hatcheries, supporting his claims with statistics and reports. Accepting his proposal the Government released shit loads of money for the creation of the same. A couple of years later, the officer who succeeded him decided to inspect the marvels created by his predecessor, only to find them non-existent. What does he do? he files a report that fish breeding is having an adverse effect on the fragile ecology and proposed that the fish ponds should be destroyed and money for rehabilitating those affected be disbursed. He got his request granted too. This is not an isolated incident. Each day, its news of how people appointed to uplift the population are enriching themselves at the cost of those who elected them. From simply stealing from the public till to being showered with social injustice in plenty, people are annoyed. Not just in India, everywhere around the world.

The ex-soldiers may have taken drastic measures in retaliation of what they thought was drastic. Is the Venezuelan situation not drastic? Is the suicide of farmers in India not drastic? Is the situation in many Middle Eastern and African nations not drastic? Is the situation in much of Europe not drastic? The world is staring at the uncertainty of water, food, air, jobs, security, and everything that makes up a civilised society.

How much time before people around the world decide to go the ex-soldiers' way? Has greed blinded the powerful so much that the basic issues of humanity are going unaddressed? Will it give way to a dangerous new world order?

We are in a state of World War III. It is not nation versus nation or ideology versus ideology, simply the axis of power and greed versus the helplessness of much of humanity, at the end of which we may be left no better than apes.