Al-Qalam 
The reality is that 2020 is limping towards an ignominious end. The world is in a monumental crisis as economies are shattered, Covid-19 makes its second and third sweep. As though, this isn’t gloomy enough, powerful military nations are flexing their bulging military muscles.
Five nuclear nations are engaged in a dangerous exercise in political brinkmanship that could spill over into the realm of a deadly atomic holocaust.
Putin is practising roulette in Europe while Trump and Xi Jinping rehearse a deadly game of military chess in Asia. India and Pakistan continue to taunt each other, using nuclear vocabulary.
The United Kingdom is prepared to smash and crash its way out of the European Union, an act of political brinkmanship that will haunt the continent’s wellbeing for decades to come.
The United States of America faces its most crtitcal election in over 150 years. The outcome will trigger a chain of events that will rock the planet pushing the Coronavirus out of global view. Catastrophic events will spiral out of control as nation upon nation make preparations to intensify war as an instrument of expansion and military and political dominance in every hemisphere encompassing all our continents.
The nuclear arms race continues unabated as nations deploy 5th generation fighters and are busy testing 6th generation stealth warplanes.
Artificial Intelligence, laser weapons, hypersonic missiles are being deployed on land, at sea and in the air in solemn preparation for a gigantic nuclear clash that will herald the demise of mankind on this planet.
The war planners are under the mistaken illusion that a limited nuclear war will deter a greater war. The fallacy behind this irrational delusion is that once nuclear war erupts, escalation will envelope every avenue of military strategy. Those targeted and the ones targeted will be reduced to radioactive dust.
Civilization is on the decline. Many nations are on the rocks spiritually, morally, racially and economically.
What rich nations boast about nowadays is superficial, even delusional. Look deep below the surface and you will conclude that they are in precipitous decline.
Under a raging plague we are a global society stumbling into a vast darkness. In just the last few years we have seen some gruesome manifestations of racial and religious hatred that has killed thousands in an orgy of mindless nationalism that defies logic and sanity.
In every corner of our troubled planet, dishonesty is being rewarded. Honesty is the rarest commodity in the 21st century.
Political demagogues are in power in most of the world’s power blocs, an ominous trend that will continue rock the world in different directions.
Our global leaders have blatantly violated their oath of office. A litany of lies show how tragic a portrayal it is of our times that our lives are so enmeshed in deceit and falsehoods.
The lies of promised utopias, the lies of broken vows. If we continue on these suicidal paths and trajectories, the tragic end of mankind will become a bloody reality.
FAROUK ARAIEJOHANNESBURG
