Giri at 1700 hrs on 24th July 2011
If wishes were horses, fools would ride on them gladly. The tragic events in Norway last week, remind us that there are many riders amongst us who frequently mount horses that only cause despair, agony and destruction. To most of us, the state of human existence in many urban centres has, unfortunately, reached a state of helplessness.
Will our sense of survival as a human species and our innate ingenuity deliver us from the inexorable mess that we seem to have landed ourselves in? How can we pull together a genuinely-effective, international cooperation and partnerships to rid the world of this scourge of terrorism (be it ideology-based or otherwise)? How can governments and law and order agencies be made more accountable on their responsibilities to prevent acts of terrorism? Is there a case for PPP initiatives for homeland security? If so what forms can these initiatives take?
Have we reached an inflexion point in the existence of our cities wherein we need to re-design and socially-engineer them in order to ensure that they deliver maximum economic and lifestyle benefits to their citizens in a safe environment? Do we need to de-clutter our cities in a way that each city is symbiotically linked to a couple of other (neighbouring and distant) cities, yet the symbiosis is a naturally-evolving one? How will this impact on the total carbon footprints of the cities in question? What constitutional, legal, jurisdictional and administrative innovations will these efforts need?
I have to admit that I have too many questions and no ideas on how to move forward. Can you help me?
With my fingers crossed that next week will see a better world, I am signing off for now. Looking forward to interacting with you next Sunday.
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