GANDHI: WALKING WITH US TODAY
Address at the 6th Gandhi Memorial Lecture Held by the Gandhi Memorial Trust
2 October 2016 – Kuala Lumpur
By Gurdial Singh Nijar
This an exciting age – technological advances have liberated us in ways unimaginable. Communicating with others, transferring money, even the mundane paying of bills; and most significantly of all – accessing any information from anywhere in the world. All accomplished with a swift press of a button. Like the waving of a magician’s wand!
Then there’s a step up from biotechnology to modern biotechnology – where life-forms can be engineered and owned by big corporations – to nanotechnology – where life forms can be reduced to one–billionth of a metre. Indeed, even the creation of life not in the way the Almighty ordained – but through artificial asexual reproduction seems attainable, if we believe specialised scientific journals.
But to quote Charles Dickens in the famous opening paragraph of his novel, A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, …”
For, we are hit by scourges of gigantic proportions that spell dire consequences – for communities, countries and the world at large. Emanating from identifiable causes: the environment – including climate change; and wars – including the threat of nuclear wars. And the subversion of established institutions – from on-high like the UN-Security Council to domestic institutions. The initiation of illegal wars in defiance of established internationally agreed processes; on the basis of bald-faced lies. Leaving in its wake a litany of wasted lives – mainly women and children – murdered through unparalleled sophisticated weaponry. War crimes committed with impunity.
What, you may ask, has this to do with Gandhi Ji – in whose memory this lecture is being rendered?
Loads. Just listen to him. Read more →
