About 2019

As the year 2019 drew to a close, many of us were reflecting on what the just passed year brought; in fact, what the decade of the two-thousand-teens brought to the world.

Progress has been made in many areas. People have put new technologies and high-speed internet to many good uses. There is greater awareness and concern for the environment. New business models are flourishing and along with that a large amount of wealth has been created. The total value of US stock market has grown by $5 trillion just in 2019.

While this has greatly enhanced the wealth of those in upper income levels, it has also brought into sharper focus economic disparities that exist within the US and across the world. A recent survey of households showed fully 40 percent of US households are living paycheck to paycheck barely making ends meet.

The economic system that has generated massive growth has failed to make sure no one is left behind. It is often said ‘a rising tide raises all boats’, but this has not been the case. Even as the number of people living in extreme poverty has decreased across the world, too many are still stuck in the lower rungs of the economic ladder. Reducing economic disparity will be the challenge for this decade.

Another sad trend that came into greater focus in 2019 was the rise of hate and fear-based politics and the grave consequences for many minority communities across the world. As politicians exploited fear and hatred, people on the fringes have been encouraged to commit acts of hateful violence.

Over 50 Muslim worshipers were gunned down in New Zealand. And more than 200 Christian worshipers were killed in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday in 2019. Targeted attacks took place against Hispanic community in Texas where 22 shoppers were gunned down in a store.

And, several Jewish worshipers were killed by racists in synagogues in different parts of the US. Similarly, mosques in America continue to come under frequent attack, though thankfully there haven’t been any injuries to worshipers. We saw a rise of nativism and hatred of the ‘other’. Nativist and hate-driven politics appear to be here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future.

The latest episode in this saga are laws and actions taking place in India. In a country of about 1.3 billion, 200 million Muslims are possibly being relegated to second-class citizenship, or worse. A national registry of citizens will leave stateless many millions of mostly poor people unable to produce documents to prove their resident status. Non-Muslims are being offered a path back to citizenship, while millions of Muslims will be rendered stateless. This is the BJP and RSS’ anti-Muslim ideology at work. No nation in history has ever tried to subjugate such a large ethnic group.

Another worrying trend that emerged in 2019 was the rise of the democratically-elected autocratic leader. US President Trump has openly attacked key pillars of democracy – free press, the judiciary, the elected House of Representatives, the country’s intelligence services and even the independent Federal Reserve Bank. Such behaviour from the president of the US encouraged many other leaders around the world to muzzle their press and clamp down on the judiciary in pursuit of their own political agendas.

Let us hope that human desire for justice will prevail during this new year and decade. In many parts of the world, citizens are starting to curb the worst excesses of nativist ideologies, and consciousness has grown about issues of inequality and damage to the environment. We can only pray this will begin to take humanity back to a place of relative harmony under democratic systems.

The writer is a freelance contributor based in Washington DC.

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