The strutting emperors

Candid corner

By Raoof Hasan

The world stage has been littered with strutting of emperors, some with a shade of rooting in history, with others patently self-proclaimed. Together, they consume a lot of space with little substance to give credibility to their anointing. There are quite a few of the breed living in contemporary times. Through their tenures, the world has been consumed with piles of ill-gotten power and pelf, topped by boundless regression.

It is also true that, with technological progress, the value system has taken a battering that cannot be measured in words. Not that such treatment has not been its fate in the olden times, but, somehow, the immensity of this recent mauling catapults the past beyond any measure of recognition. Quite literally, it has been rendered unrecognisable.

We keep grieving about this unfortunate state, but let it be recognised that we have really done nothing to make an impact for the better. We are comfortable with the benefits that our respective status may accrue for us, oblivious of the agony that the underprivileged multitudes are routinely subjected to. Their pain and their suffering, in fact their life itself, has been bereft of any meaning.

The worst part of this transformation is that when the tormentors of humanity assume the mantle of authority, even the powerful bow in servility. The genocide in Gaza has been going on for over one year now, but the world, by and large, has been a silent spectator to the harrowi