The Globalisation of Fear

Illustration from imperialglobalexeter

By Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (Ashraf Dali)
Asia Journalist Association President

CAIRO: The Globalisation of Fear has been the perfect business to trade in our world; name it the fear of pandemics, the fear of wars, the fear of authoritative regimes, the fear of hunger, the fear of censorship, along with many other types of fear related to human beings everywhere.

It seems that only bad business could bring benefits for global companies; for healthy people there wouldn’t be any need to grow medical factories.

The only hope people dream of is having a global way to find safety, peace and love, instead. In peaceful countries, owning arms wouldn’t be a priority. Budgets could be saved for building educational institutions instead. But this could not be acceptable by war lords.

Finding a war became a normal way taken by super powers to help globalising fear.

Super powers are no longer limited to the old traditional ones before WWII; rather any country that is driven by the idea of supremacy, will freely bomb, attack, or invade its neighbouring countries. Consider all these fights along dozens of boarders everywhere.

Refugees are the clear mirrors that reflect the results of fear. 82.4 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced. 73% hosted in neighbouring countries. Most refugees and Venezuelans displaced abroad lived in countries neighbouring their countries of origin. While 68% originated from just five countries, more than two thirds of all refugees and Venezuelans displaced abroad, came from Syrian Arab Republic with 6.7 million (27%), Venezuela with 4 million (16%), Afghanistan with 2.6 million (11%), Myanmar with 5% and South Sudan with 2.2 million (9%).

There are also millions of stateless people who have been denied a nationality and lack access to basic rights such as education, health care, employment and freedom of movement.

This is at a time when 1 in every 95 people on earth has fled their home as a result of conflict or persecution.

Was scientific and technical progress working against human beings?

It is a critical question, as everyone is thinking that such advancement was not for the sake of a better world.

For example, internet access has become a vital way to upgrade our lives, but such an advantage is not available to the majorities. Internet access has become in the hands of political powers to control the feed of facts, news and opinions of different views.

In the media field, journalists have a tough mission to spread their investigative works, probing into cases of corruption and dictatorship. They have been victims of their holy war to help the truth prevail.

Without truthful news, people act and react wrongly. Hidden facts and oppressed opinions are needed to shape the right mind and make the proper decision. This is why we are always victims of bad decisions, wrong orientation and sick behaviour.

The globalisation of fear shall continue as long as we are missing the truth. Fleeing refugees are basically subject to misinformation, disinformation and all sorts of misleading information. This is why their sufferings don’t really end.

While we think of helping the people in trouble, it is a must to think of how others should never be thrown or trapped in a miserable future.

Let’s stop the globalisation of fear, everywhere.