The Twilight of a Superpower: Civilizations That Build Command the Future by Javed Akbar

We are not merely passing through another cycle of economic turbulence. What confronts us is deeper and more disquieting—a crisis of civilization itself. The tremors unsettling the global order are not accidental; they are the visible signs of an empire in decline. And history, when it chronicles such moments, rarely speaks of grace. It speaks of strain, and often, of desperation.

The United States, a superpower with scarcely 250 years of history, once stood as the principal architect of the post-war order. Today, however, it reveals the contradictions long concealed by its dominance. Its conduct has grown increasingly erratic, its rhetoric sharper, its reliance on force more pronounced. This is not merely the imprint of a single leader. Donald Trump, for all his excesses, is less an anomaly than a reflection—an unvarnished expression of a deeper, enduring ethos rooted in exceptionalism, expansion, and supremacy.

From its earliest foundations, the American project was shaped by conquest and hierarchy. The doctrine of Manifest Destinyª was not incidental; it became foundational. The record is unambiguous: hundreds of military interventions, a near-continuous state of war, and a global presence sustained less by consent than by coercion. Power, in this paradigm, is both instrument and justification.

Yet today, this imperial posture appears increasingly detached from reality. The National Security Strategy of 2025¹ reiterates a familiar claim—the right to dominate and define the rules of the international order. But the world it seeks to command has changed. The unipolar moment has receded, giving way to a multipolar landscape in which new centers of power are not peripheral—they are decisive.

Foremost among them is China—not merely a rising economy, but a civilization with a continuous history stretching back thousands of years. To view its ascent only through the lens of trade or technology is to miss its deeper significance. China embodies a different grammar of power, one shaped by historical continuity, philosophical depth, and strategic patience.

More than two millennia ago, during the unification under the Qin unification of China², a sophisticated system of governance rooted in order and administration had already begun to take shape. This evolution was enriched during the Hundred Schools of Thought³, when competing philosophies refined ideas of statecraft, ethics, and harmony. Central to this intellectual heritage is the concept of Tao—the art* of aligning with the flow of circumstances, transforming adversity into opportunity through patience, foresight, and disciplined restraint.

This is not passivity; it is calculated endurance.

Such a worldview stands in stark contrast to the reflexes of a declining power. Where one invests in long-term transformation, the other relies on immediate force. Where one builds, the other coerces. Where one envisions a shared future, the other insists on primacy.

The divergence is tangible. Within a single generation, China has lifted hundreds of millions out of extreme poverty and reshaped the global balance of development. Its emphasis on infrastructure, education, and long-term planning reflects a model grounded in continuity rather than conquest.

The United States, by contrast, continues to channel immense resources into maintaining an unparalleled military apparatus. This divergence is not merely strategic—it is moral. It reflects two competing visions of order: one rooted in cooperation and development, the other in dominance and deterrence.

What is unfolding, therefore, is not simply a geopolitical rivalry. It is a contest between two civilizational logics. One seeks integration; the other enforces imposition. One builds legitimacy through development; the other asserts it through power.

History offers a sobering warning: empires in decline seldom retreat quietly. They often lash out, mistaking force for authority and resistance for threat. This is the peril of our moment. A power unwilling to accept its limits risks destabilizing not only its rivals, but the fragile fabric of global peace itself.

The choice before the world is stark. It is not between East and West, nor between competing nationalisms. It is between two moral horizons—one that affirms cooperation and shared progress, and another that clings to domination.

In such an hour, neutrality becomes an illusion. The call for a more just and balanced international order is no longer rhetorical; it is urgent. Anti-imperialism, restored to principle, emerges not as ideology but as necessity.

For the stakes are profound: whether the future will be shaped by the logic of force, or by the promise of shared humanity. From China’s civilizational instinct to build patiently to America’s long reliance on dominance — at times embodied in its recourse to gunboat diplomacy — the verdict of history is clear: enduring power is secured not through coercion, but through restraint, the quiet strength to create rather than to compel. In the final reckoning, it is not the might that projects force across distant shores, but the vision that builds across generations, which ultimately commands the future.

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ª Manifest Destiny is a 19^th century document that the United States held that it was the nation’s divinely ordained mission to expand its territories. It was like a huge sense of nationalism and ambition, where people believed it was America’s right (and even duty) to spread its influence and territory from coast to coast.

¹ The 2025 NSS does not openly declare a “right to dominate” in moral language – but in practice. It reasserts dominance as a strategic necessity.

 ² More than a millennium ago, under Qin Shi Huang (during the late 3^rd century BCE), China unified its territories and built a centralized system rooted in strict laws and standardization, guided by legalism and later refined with Confucianism – ethical living (Confucius 551-479 BCE) – establishing a lasting tradition of order and statecraft.

³  The Hundred Schools of Thought era refers to a vibrant intellectual period in ancient China, roughly from the 6^th. to the 3^rd centuries BCE. It was a time of intense philosophical debate and innovation, when thinkers like Confucius offered competing visions on ethics, governance, and society – laying the intellectual foundations of Chinese civilization.

*  The concept of the Tao (Dao), central to Taoism (6^th century BCE), refers to “the Way” – the fundamental, ineffable force that underlies and governs the universe. In essence, the Tao teaches harmony with the flow of life, encouraging simplicity, humility, and effortless action – living in a alignment with nature rather than against it.

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Javed Akbar is a freelance writer whose opinion columns have appeared in Toronto Star and numerous digital platforms. He can be reached at: mjavedakbar@gmail.com

Dominations Of Illusions #Poem by Jan Sand

 

We live atop this spinning sphere
Which makes our silly suppositions clear,
There’s no such thing as day or night.
It’s just a shadow peekaboo of light.
A slice of time to chop the fourth dimension
Like an endless sausage into slices, but really,
The Sun’s quite steady in the sky.
It’s we, imprisoned in our spin,
Chase the Sun as if it’s mobile in our sky.
And just as well our solid Moon
Shrinks and grows in occult illusions
A trick of spin to make one grin
At the ease we humans
Swallow confusions.

Robert Peary reached the North Pole

The story of who first reached the North Pole is not just about frostbitten explorers and heroic endurance, it’s a case study in how history is shaped, challenged and sometimes rewritten.

On April 6, 1909, Robert Peary announced that he had achieved what many believed impossible, he had reached the geographic North Pole. At the time, the claim electrified the world. Newspapers celebrated him as a national hero, and his name was etched into the mythology of exploration alongside figures like Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan. In an era driven by imperial ambition and scientific curiosity, planting a figurative flag at the top of the world carried enormous symbolic weight.

But from the very beginning, doubt lingered.

Peary’s journey across the Arctic ice was undeniably gruelling. Battling extreme cold, shifting ice floes, and logistical challenges, he relied heavily on Inuit guides, dogsled teams, and a relay system of support parties. Yet, when scrutinized, the evidence supporting his claim appears surprisingly thin.

Unlike modern expeditions, Peary had no GPS, no aerial verification and limited navigational records. His logs were incomplete, and the speeds he claimed, particularly during the final push to the Pole, seemed implausibly fast to many later analysts. Critics argued that the distances covered in such a short time defied both physical endurance and environmental realities.

Even contemporaries were sceptical. Frederick Cook, who had claimed to reach the North Pole a year earlier in 1908, accused Peary of exaggeration. Ironically, Cook’s own claim was later discredited, turning the entire episode into a tangled web of competing narratives and questionable evidence.

What makes Peary’s story particularly compelling is the tension between heroism and proof. In the early 20th century, exploration was as much about storytelling as it was about science. Public opinion often formed faster than rigorous verification could follow.

Peary understood this. His announcement was swift and confident, leaving little room for doubt in the public imagination. Institutions like the National Geographic Society endorsed his claim, further cementing his legacy. Yet, critics later argued that such endorsements were influenced by national pride and personal connections rather than strict scientific scrutiny.

This raises an uncomfortable question, how often has history rewarded the best storyteller rather than the most accurate account?

It wasn’t until decades later that the North Pole was reached in a way that left no room for debate. In 1948, the Soviet expedition known as Sever-2 expedition successfully landed aircraft directly at the North Pole. This achievement, backed by modern navigation and clear documentation, is widely regarded as the first undisputed arrival.

By then, the world had changed. Exploration was no longer just about individual glory, it had become intertwined with technological progress and geopolitical rivalry, particularly during the early stages of the Cold War. Verification mattered more than ever.

So where does that leave Peary? To dismiss him outright would be unfair. His expeditions contributed significantly to Arctic exploration, mapping unknown regions and advancing polar travel techniques. He demonstrated extraordinary resilience and determination in one of the harshest environments on Earth.

However, to accept his claim uncritically is equally problematic. Modern historians tend to adopt a middle ground, Peary likely came close, perhaps very close, to the North Pole but whether he actually reached it remains doubtful. The lack of definitive evidence, combined with inconsistencies in his records, prevents a conclusive verdict.

The controversy surrounding Peary is more than a historical footnote, it’s a reminder of how knowledge evolves. What is accepted as truth in one era can be questioned in another, especially as standards of evidence improve.

It also highlights the human element in exploration. Ambition, ego, national pride, and the desire for recognition all play roles in shaping historical narratives. Peary’s story is not just about ice and distance, it’s about the thin line between achievement and myth.

In the end, the North Pole itself remains indifferent to the debate. It does not remember who stood upon it first. But history does and it continues to ask whether the story we were told is the one that truly happened.

Ghostin’ #126 #Cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

 

They are like neighbours we are aware of,
except we are NOT aware of and
they have absolutely nothing to do with Halloween.

For more Ghostin’, HERE!
For more Ovi Cartoons, HERE!

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AMERICAN PHOENIX: an Apologetic

It is taught that we should not shame people if we want them to change. I don’t know if I can always agree with that. I am myself ashamed and know there are millions of people in this nation-state who need, and I mean deeply need, to be ashamed. Shame can be harrowing, but shame can also be righteous. Admitting to oneself and before others to being wrong, facing up to the truth of reality, admitting to the cause and apologetically being sorry and courageous before it—making amends for the consequences of gross misjudgments and criminal offenses.

Like it or like it not, America First is an illusion and a pretense and posturing in hubris. We are not the summit, not the pinnacle or crown of creation. Life, including human existence, is a circle, like the earth is round, a sphere of interconnective dependencies, and not a hierarchy of enforced domination. We are participants with all others, a species-joined by genetics and evolution, and at best, when we are at our best, we are cooperative working partners.

Like it or like it not, we live in a context of shared reality. And the disconnect from reality is endemic in the American identity-syndrome and configures the shamefulness of America’s withdrawal from discomforting challenges into narcissistic delusions. While yet to look steadfastly, honestly, critically and courageous at America’s role in global realities should sting the conscience of American people, uncovering the cause of a shame that shows itself vindictively as a national mood of gloom and despair, we are advised to visit a therapist while continuing to shop. Therapy is a  coping component of materialistic civilization and consumerism is capitalism’s addiction of addictions.

Right now in the United States of America, we are not a good nation of good people. And if we want to be good people of a good nation, we will have to become better than we ever were in the past (because we have fallen with eyes open into more internal depredation and danger than ever before). Being better means better in our virtues and our integrity, our promises and our deeds, then the shamefulness that has taken hold of us.  The  ashes of our national repentance must be equal to the phoenix of renewed democracy. Henceforth—for recovery and trust in the world--the phoenix of human betterment and not now repeating the bloody cataclysms of the eagle of war would better serve as a national symbol.

In the crisis of democracy upon us, the corruption of conduct and of governance must be swept from the land and cleansed from the air. Only then will we collectively plant new crops for a shameless harvest. Only then will we again know what it is to breathe the good health of freedom. Then life will become lighter without the weight of betrayal, without the shadow enfolding coils of venomous tyranny.

If the United States has a sovereign Constitution, if the United States has a viable democracy, then the American people united have the power to peacefully and lawfully remove the fundamental cause of current (and yet ongoing) national shame, of harmful misconduct and abhorrent behavior. Indeed, to do so is a common sense assertion of democratic instinct.

Honesty is the first step to recovery. Not only indispensable personal honesty throughout the citizenry but indispensable honesty in political service and public discourse. Seekers of office who lack honesty in the questioning concerns of critical dialogue should never be elected to office. We are far from being of that stainless, trustworthy status today, but this is a goal—a national antidote directly before us.  In this too, the quality of a people and the vitality of democracy are on the line.

Approaching the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the USA, let’s take a moment together to ask ourselves in our purblind self-absorption, our stress, our anxiety, our hurry-worry scurrying financial lives, are we turning back and heading home, or rushing terminally into the ICU of failed politicians and calamitous policies?

Each of us makes choices, large and small, not only when voting. Choices have consequences. They delineate parameters and point in a direction.

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David Sparenberg is a humanitarian and eco poet, an international essayist and storyteller. He published four eBooks with OVI Books (Sweden) and the Word Press in 2025, the fourth of which was TROUBADOUR & the Earth on Fire. David will have a fifth new OVI eBook, MANIFESTO: Ecology, Spirituality & Politics in a Higher Octave, published in April 2026. David Sparenberg lives in Seattle, WA in the Pacific Northwest of the United States but identifies as an Ecotopian Citizen of Creation.

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Don’t miss David Sparenberg‘s latest eBook Troubadour and the Earth on fire ,
Download for free, HERE!

Dnieper River #Poem #Painting by Nikos Laios

 

The rain is falling
Hard now and my boots
Are stuck in the mud,
We have a respite
Until the next attack
And I think of you,
Do you think of me?

I think of our picnics
On the banks of the
Dnieper River during
Spring and the chiming
Of Saint Sophia church
Bells on Sundays,
And everybody wearing
Their Sunday best;
But that seems so long
Ago now when
We had peace.

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With a digital painting from Nikos Laios

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Check Nikos Laios' eBOOK, HERE!

#eBook The eighth wonder by Ovi Art eBooks

Its wagons roll into the town square, or its tents rise on the outskirts, bearing wonders that defy the reasonable world: a woman who flies, a man who bends like water, a clown whose painted sadness speaks more truth than any unadorned face.

For a few coins, we enter a realm where gravity is negotiable, where the body becomes something other than itself, machine, animal, pure line, pure absence. And then, just as suddenly, it is gone, leaving only sawdust and the memory of impossibility.
Climate change and national security in the 21st century

For the circus, like modern art, asks us to believe in transformations. The ordinary person becomes the flyer, the stable ground becomes the wire, the white paint on a face becomes the zero of form. Step inside the tent. The show is about to begin.

The eighth wonder

Read it online or download HERE!
Read it online & downloading it as PDF or EPUB HERE!
Or enjoy reading it online & downloading it as PDF HERE!
All downloads are FREE!

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For more eBooks check Ovi eBookshelves HERE!

Screws & Chips #123 #Cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

 

In a galaxy far, far away, intelligence demonstrated by screws and chips,
boldly gone where no robot has gone before!

For more Screws & Chips, HERE!
For more Ovi Cartoons, HERE!

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Easter of the Resurrection #Thoughts by Dr. Emanuel Paparella

Another Easter is upon us. Time to rejoice. Time to reflect. Time to ask the question that Chesterton also asked before his conversion. Why are we still talking about a guy who lived some 2000 years ago? How relevant is he really? Those are good questions. As it has become my custom at Ovi magazine I take Christmas and Easter as an opportunity to revisit some of the thoughts of G. K. Chesterton on the subject. He is inimitable. Here below are some selections from his The Everlasting Man.

“If Christ was simply a human character, he really was a highly complex and contradictory human character. For he combined exactly the two things that lie at the two extremes of human variation. He was exactly what the man with a delusion never is; he was wise; he was a good judge. What he said was always unexpected; but it was always unexpectedly magnanimous and often unexpectedly moderate.

Take a thing like the point of the parable of the tares and the wheat. It has the quality that united sanity and subtlety. It has not the simplicity of a madman. It has not even the simplicity of a fanatic. It might be uttered by a philosopher a hundred years old, at the end of a century of Utopias. Nothing could be less like this quality of seeing beyond and all round obvious things, than the condition of an egomaniac with the one sensitive spot in his brain. I really do not see how these two characters could be convincingly combined, except in the astonishing way in which the creed combines them….

The Jesus of the New Testament seems to me to have in great many ways the note of something superhuman; that is of something human and more than human. But there is another quality running through all his teachings which seems to me neglected in most modern talk about them as teachings; and that is the persistent suggestion that he has not really come to teach.

If there is one incident in the record which affects me personally as grandly and gloriously human, it is the incident of giving wine for the wedding-feast.That is really human in the sense in which a whole crowd of prigs, having the appearance of human beings, can hardly be described as human.

It rises superior to all superior persons. It is as human as Herrick and as democratic as Dickens. But even in that story there is something else that has the note of things not fully explained; and in a way there very relevant. I mean the first hesitation, not on any ground touching the nature of the miracle, but on that of the propriety of working any miracles at all, at least at that stage; ‘my time is not yet come.’

What did that mean? At least it certainly meant a general plan or purpose in the mind, with which certain things did or did not fit in. And if we leave out that solitary strategic plan, we not only leave out the point of the story, but the story. The more one studies the Bible, the more obvious it becomes that Christ was unlike any man who walked the earth up until that time — and that He maintains that distinction to this very day.

I care not if the skeptic says it is a tall story; I cannot see how so toppling a tower could stand so long without foundation. Still less can I see how it could become, as it has become, the home of man.

Had it merely appeared and disappeared, it might possibly have been remembered or explained as the last leap of the rage of illusion, the ultimate myth of the ultimate mood, in which the mind struck the sky and broke. But the mind did not break. It is the one mind that remains unbroken in the break-up of the world.

If it were an error, it seems as if the error could hardly have lasted a day. If it were a mere ecstasy, it would seem that such an ecstasy could not endure for an hour. It has endured for nearly two thousand years; and the world within it has been more lucid, more level-headed, more reasonable in its hopes, more healthy in its instincts, more humorous and cheerful in the face of fate and death, than all the world outside.”

Happy Easter, everyone, whether you are a believer or a non-believer!

On the Writing of Power and Professional Development by Mohammad Momin Khawaja

Writing has been used by many ancient and modern cultures to preserve historical records of human activity. This is an important human social activity in that people find relevance in expressing themselves in various social contexts. A record of this would preserve how we perceive and navigate the challenges of our life activities. Cultural values and traditions are often the strongest moral and emotional concepts to people. As such, narrating and keeping records of one’s traditions and values would remind us of what we value the most and preserve what we revere, trust, and find as a source of life guidance.

There are many ethical, socially meaningful, and professional applications to writing. Writing is being used in various studies and professions to help preserve the self by narrating or keeping a record of cultural values and traditions. The idea central to reflective writing is that written stories are stimuli to and the subject matter for individual or group discussion and contemplation (Bourdreau et al., 2012). Participants write about events or ideas in their personal and professional lives that are either troubling or difficult to resolve. Then, they share the stories behind such complexities with peers in a support group setting. Just as is the medical profession, in the humanities this narrative context takes shape in diverse forms and functions (Bourdreau et al., 2012).

Reflective writing courses have been used successfully in western nation-states for the professional education of general practitioners. Participants write about events or ideas in their personal and professional lives that are either troubling or difficult to. resolve. Then, they share as the stories behind such complexities with peers in a support group setting. Narrative story has become increasingly more in use by healthcare professionals. This phenomenon is referred to ‘narrativist turn' in the humanities and has now coincided in being a trend in medical professional development. This narrative context in medicine has taken shape in diverse forms and functions (Bourdreau et al., 2012). The earliest sources of this in the medical profession is sources to the Balint group method that was grounded in storytelling. The idea behind this method was to support the doctor-patient relationship by focusing on physician emotions arising out of clinical encounters. Their focus was on identifying and determining puzzling and unsettling emotions and situations (Bourdreau et al., 2012). A similar activity, although different in how we understand narrative and stories as a genre, has been termed reflective writing.

Many healthcare professionals recognize reflective writing and the medical narrative as specific methodology in qualitative research. The stories and narratives in the medical profession constitute a type of psychotherapeutic intervention. This medical narrative has now evolved as stream within bioethics (Bourdreau et al., 2012). The extent of the development of reflective writing and the medical narrative is such that a taxonomy was recently constructed and published. This taxonomy in the healthcare profession is known as ‘narrative medicine'. Thus, it is medicine practiced with the narrative competence to recognize, interpret, and be moved to action by the predicaments of others.

Writing is an important human activity that has helped to preserve human ideas, values and traditions, and the history of nations and peoples. This important human activity is found in abundance in nearly all the professions and in education today. Reflective writing is a development in writing used nowadays towards beneficent outcomes. Despite the diverse nature of reflective writing and narrative writing, the practical applications of this practice prove useful in many human complexities found in the world today.

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References:
Bourdreau, D., Liben, S., Fuks, A., (2012). A faculty development workshop in narrative-based reflective writing. Perspective Medical Education. 1:143-154. DOl: 10.1007/s40037-012-0021-4

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Mohammad Momin Khawaja is a Graduate Student (Athabasca University) in MAIS Interdisciplinary Program and a freelance Journalist; Member of the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA) and Member of the International Center for Journalism – ICFJ Global Network, Washington, D.C. USA. He shares a scholarly global insight to socio-economic - ancient and cultural affairs and writes on contemporary issues of cultural studies, social justice, criminology, philosophy,history and problems of indigenous social welfare system and human development. He is author of numerous publications including, Women in the Ancient World (Lambert Academic Publication, 2023), Philosophy and Ethics; and A World Community: Diversity in Cultures and Values (2024), and Women in Ancient Cultures (Lulu Press Inc. USA), 2025. He recently published: “North American Colonization of Indigenous People, Cultures and System of Social Welfare.”:https://www.uncommonthought.com/mtblog/archives/2023/05/26/north-american-colonization-of-indigenous-people-cultures-and-system-of-social-welfare.php. “Canada’s System of Social Welfare and We, the People Aspiring for Change and Social Justice.” https://thetimes.com.au/world/23595-canada-s-system-of-social-whttps:“North American Society, AI and the Technological  Imperatives.”https://countercurrents.org/2024/01/north-american-society-ai-and-the-technological-imperatives/

Buried shame by Virginia Robertson

Every year, the world pauses, briefly, politely, on the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. Speeches are made. Statements are issued. Carefully worded posts circulate. And then, almost immediately, the world moves on. The landmines, however, do not.

They wait. Hidden beneath soil that once fed families, along paths where children still dare to walk, under the fragile illusion of “post-conflict recovery.” Landmines are not relics of war; they are its most cowardly extension. They are weapons designed not just to kill, but to linger, to rot the future long after the headlines fade.

Let’s stop pretending this is merely a humanitarian issue. It is a moral failure ongoing, deliberate, and tolerated. Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: landmines exist today not because we lack the technology to remove them, but because we lack the political will to prioritize human life over strategic convenience. Clearing mines is slow, expensive and unglamorous. It doesn’t win elections. It doesn’t boost defence contracts. It doesn’t satisfy the appetites of those who still view war as a game played on maps instead of a curse buried in the earth.

So the mines stay. And with them, the consequences. Farmers who cannot farm. Children who cannot play. Communities that cannot rebuild. Entire regions frozen in a state of quiet terror, where every step carries the weight of uncertainty. This is not collateral damage. This is calculated neglect.

What makes landmines particularly grotesque is their indiscriminate nature. They do not recognize ceasefires. They do not distinguish between soldier and civilian, adult and child, enemy and survivor. They are equal opportunity destroyers, and in that sense, they expose the hypocrisy of modern warfare. We speak endlessly about precision, about minimizing harm, about “smart” weapons, yet we continue to tolerate devices that are the very definition of blind violence.

And then there is the language. “Mine action.” “Risk education.” “Clearance operations.” Sanitized phrases that attempt to wrap brutality in bureaucracy. Let’s call it what it is: a global effort to clean up after the reckless, often cynical decisions of governments and armed groups who knew exactly what they were planting and where.

The defenders of landmines will argue necessity. They always do. They will speak of borders, deterrence and security. But what security is built on the permanent endangerment of civilians? What defence strategy requires the future to bleed?

If a weapon continues to kill decades after a conflict ends, it is not a tool of war, it is a legacy of failure.

There is, of course, progress. Treaties have been signed. Stockpiles destroyed. Large areas cleared. Dedicated individuals risk their lives every day to disarm these hidden killers, one painstaking step at a time. Their work is heroic. It is also, in a just world, unnecessary.

Because the real solution is not better mine detection. It is not faster clearance. It is the absolute, uncompromising rejection of landmines as acceptable instruments of war.

Anything less is complicity. This day of awareness should not be comfortable. It should not be a box to tick or a moment to signal virtue. It should be a confrontation. A demand. An accusation.

Why are these weapons still in the ground? Why are communities still living in fear of something buried decades ago? And why, despite all our technological advancement and moral posturing, have we accepted this as normal?

Until those questions are answered with action, not statements, not promises, but measurable, relentless action, this day remains what it truly is: a reminder not of progress but of how much we are still willing to ignore.

The mines are still there.

And so is our responsibility.