TECHNOLOGY, VIOLENCE AND PEACE

"Our world is one of terrible contradictions. Plenty of food, but one billion people go hungry. Lavish lifetsyles for a few, but poverty for too many others. Huge advances in medicine while mothers die every day in childbirth, and children die every day from drinking water. Billions spent om weapons to kill people instead of keeping them safe."

                                                         -Ban Ki-moon.

Where to seek shelter from the nuclear bombs ? Where to escape from the ‘one million bullets of a Metal Storm’? Technology has long been used as  tools for violence, from clubs and swords to cluster bombs and precision-guided missiles. All what man seeks is ‘peace’ and nothing more… But with innovation of newer  technology and its development what man brings is nothing but total disharmony.

Though technology is developed to bring peace, safety and security, it always inflicts violence. All forms of technology, from a paper weight to modern sensors, everything is made to make the life easier and lifestyle better. But the negative notions of man changes a paper weight to a mere stone and a sensor to be used in a fully automatic machine gun. Man used bows and arrows to hunt their food. But it later became the instruments used for fighting each other. Fire once used as a necessity for baking was later used to power up the gunpowder. Wheels initially used in bullock carts were later redesigned to use in army tanks and trucks..Ships were first built just to conquer the sea, but later it was developed into its newer derivatives- submarines and aircraft carriers.. Wright brothers meant airplanes just as a faster medium of transportation, but time converted it into supersonic jet bombers.. Microchips, which made computing cushy, were successfully employed in precision-guided missiles and automatic rifles. Nuclear resources once used for electricity generation is now primarily used for the production of deadliest bombs…When the land and oceans become unsafe for them to store the nuclear weapons, they even make use of the outer space to store them securely. As per the investigations by some private agencies there is enough weapons built ready for use to fire up the entire earth more than ten times.  Now the greedy is trying to conquer the speed of light – for the inacceptable innovations..

In a most general way technology as a weapon can be divided into three.

• The nuclear weapons or atomic weapons in which the energy required is generated by the fission or fusion reactions of atomic nuclei. Their effects include heat, blast and radiation. People of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is still striving for their life though this is the seventieth year of bombing.
• Chemical weapons in which chemicals such as napalm and sarin are used. This can wound or kill the person with a direct contact. They are usually developed to use with an artillery shell or missiles.
• The third category includes the rifles and conventional explosives. A.K 47 is said to be the weapon used in the most number of killings. But with newer technology, automatic machine guns such as the Metal Storm is able to deliver a firing rate of one million bullets per minute.

Today the world super powers and terrorist groups focus on a newer but yet powerful weapons – the biological weapons. Man has always strived to find a solution to cure up the various maladies. An epitome is the Black Plague which took away half of the population of Europe continent. But he is now interested in developing new toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses and fungi with the intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Ease of production and the broad availability of biological agents and technical know-how have led to a further spread of biological weapons and an increased desire among developing countries to have them. The threat of bio-terrorism is real and significant, it is neither in the realm of science fiction nor confined to our nation.

"Peace is not merely an absence of war, but the nurture of human life."

                                                                                 - Jane Addams.

Peace is a celebration of our co-existence, a necessity in our collective struggle to survive and flourish, and an acknowledgement of our inter-connections and mutual needs. Where one can find peace in the present world? Where can be it found when there is a missile ready to be projected at the verge of a finger press? Today many believe peace to be a nice but impossible idea. To achieve world peace one need hard work, flexibility and a great deal of open-mindedness. These things are in very short supply in this world. Our educational system and way of living must change in the world. The world has become a place of selfishness. A man never sees words like peace, love, share and care after his tenth grade studies.Sitting in front of a laptop or smart phone, his world get narrower. Things must change to  make us redefined.

"I know not with what weapons world war III will be fought, but world war IV will be fought with sticks and stones" 

                                                                                      -Albert Einstein.

The reality of war and violence is completely different. It is cruel and filthy and filled with sadness and misery. All we need to bring world peace is change our on mentality. We should throw up all our negative notions and thoughts. Though divided by countries, language, color, cast and creed we must develop an entity that  would unite us all. Then there would be peace in our land, peace in our heart.