HOPE FOR THE BEST

BUT PREPARE FOR THE WORST – oh what a profound wisdom of ages is embodied in this pithy proverb, which has always been the motto, the forte, of this editor too. First of all, let us hope for the best to our planet in crisis, the biodiversity and congenial climate of which we humans have so deliberately destroyed by our greed and cruelty and also given rise to the ominous phenomenon of global warming. Secondly, we hope all the best for our world community and the United Nations which have in the recent decades become hostages in the hands of the rapacious super power and other avaricious capitalist states who in the name of peace and welfare are unleashing predatory and genocidal wars on the pretext of fighting ‘terror’. Thirdly, our best hopes for the welfare of our own country where the overwhelming majority of people is still living under a meager less than $2 a day income despite, or even aggravated by, the fast development that is taking place according to the liberalization-privatization-globalization syndrome – all that under the euphemism of a socialist republic. Also hope for success in a concerted effort by ‘we the people’, cutting across all classes and communities, to end terrorism of all sorts, including the State terror, and for the flowering of real secular and fraternal feelings among the people cementing our unity as also promoting friendship and cooperation with all countries in the world, particularly with all our neighbours. Finally, our best wishes and hopes for the Telugu people in general, and of our State of Andhra Pradesh in particular, riven by parochial passions and separatist agitations which unfortunately assume popular dimensions now due to many misunderstandings and ignorance exacerbated by ‘Thackerayist’ violence, that somehow they will be able to keep up their unity, forget and forgive the past atrocities and misdeeds by sundry sections of various regions, and march forward united to attain new heights of peace and progress in the comity of States in India. But, as already said, let us also be prepared for the worst. 