Nuclear Disarmament in the Middle East

Nuclear disarmament refers to the process of elimination of nuclear weapons and in the end creating a nuclear-weapon-free world.

 

Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani, at the United Nations General Assembly, said “as long as nuclear weapons exist, the threat of their use exists”. This is the reason why nuclear disarmament is very essential. Nuclear disarmament in the Middle East is even more essential.

Of the four UN member states that have not signed the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Pakistan and Israel are two and nuclear power is possessed by Iran, Israel and Pakistan. Though Israel has never officially acknowledged the possession of nuclear weapons, however according to Federation of American Scientists, in a 2007 report, Israel has 75 to 400 nuclear warheads. Israel would use these nuclear warheads if it feels threatened by any nation in the Middle East like Iran. Till now, Iran’s official stand is that its nuclear research is aimed at peaceful purposes. But if it reaches weapon capacity, Israel will attack. Pakistan, which successfully tested its nuclear weapons in 1998, has stayed out of these conflicts. But Pakistan has close links with Saudi Arabia; Iran’s chief rival. Saudi Arabia has provided Pakistan with financial aid in the past, it is speculated that in exchange for this assistance, Pakistan agreed to provide Saudi Arabia with nuclear protection if Iran developed nuclear weapons.

With Iran’s uranium enriched facilities, it can reach nuclear weapon capability anytime in the near future. If this happens, it could start a nuclear arms race (which may have already started) or a nuclear war. In order to maintain peace in the Middle East it is important to prevent Iran for developing nuclear weapons. This can be done with force by destroying the uranium enriched facilities but this may not stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons and may even spark violence once again in the Middle East. To leave the lives of millions in the hands of a ‘may’ is not an option, for a nuclear war will not only take millions of innocent human lives but will also have a far reaching impact on the growth of the Middle East for generations as it did in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Thus the safest option is to establish a nuclear-free-zone in the Middle East.

Establishing a nuclear-free-zone in the Middle East is not an easy task as it will be very difficult to prevent all the countries from using nuclear weapons. Even if ONE country continues to develop nuclear weapons, so will the others and the threat of mass destruction will continue to persist. The process of establishing a nuclear-free-zone in Middle East will be long as we need to realize that it is not just about a nuclear arms race but also about protection and self-preservation for the Middle Eastern countries. It will require confidence building and trust building along with other political measures. This nuclear-free-zone will not only prove to be beneficial for the Middle East but also the entire world; along with strengthening the peace process in the Middle East it will also ensure peace in the entire world, for a nuclear war in the Middle East will suck in the entire world one by one and be the end of mankind as we know it.

INTERSTELLAR: space, love, hope and spoilers

 Christopher Nolan has done it again. He has brought us another amazing movie – INTERSTELLAR.  Interstellar is a futuristic movie in which Earth is nearing its end. Food is scare, dust is everywhere and people are dying of asthma. NASA physicist, professor Brand (Michael Caine), has been working on ways to save earth and mankind. For this he needs to send Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) , his daughter (Anne Hathaway) and 2 other researcher into another galaxy using a wormhole where they will have to find a planet that could be their new home. However, this movie is more than a space exploration movie. It is a movie about love and survival. Copper is a single father and he has promised his kids that he would come back home. To keep this promise he has to race against time as the other galaxy has a rotating black hole as its sun. The nearer they go to the black hole, more the time they lose as inside the gravitational pull of the black hole, hours can turn into years! At the same time, the team of researchers has to work as fast as possible so that they can find a solution while there is still an earth to save…

Truth be told, I was a bit disappointed. After Inception, I expected something out of this world. Literally speaking, Interstellar is ‘out of the world’ but it did not make me go ‘wow’ like Inception did. Space exploration is something that has been done so many times that the concept wasn’t new. But Interstellar is still a great movie. Firstly, the visuals of the movie are mind blowing. Although it is a fictional movie, most of the things in Interstellar have scientific groundings. The depictions of gravity, wormholes, black holes etc. are very realistic. And the concept of time as a physical dimension is also something that is being explored in the real world. No doubt, a lot of research went into the making of this movie and no doubt it has paid off.

Secondly, this movie is jam packed with emotions like love, loss and reunion. While everybody else is obsessing over the end of the movie, which I honestly did not find that confusing, I think that the real beauty of this movie lies in the innocence of a father-daughter relationship. Small instances like how Cooper is unable to tell Murph that he is actually going to save the world because he wants to protect her, how even after growing up the word of her father that they may both be the same age by the time he returns matters, how the father and the daughter have their own bubble which is more important than anything else in the world and a happy ending when they both reunite are the things that make this movie heartwarming and sets it apart from most of the movies that Nolan has done. 

Lastly, one thing that Inception and Interstellar have in common is that they both made me question what all is really possible. We all need to escape from reality now and then. In fact it is one of the reasons why I love movies; reality is never enough and we all need a little bit of magic, fiction and fantasy to help us believe that there is something more out there, something more meaningful and worthy than money, power and fame. And this is what truly made this movie great for me, because it gave me hope. And we all need hope living in this world full of greedy, stupid and inhumane human beings… 

Thus, Interstellar, while not as great as Inception, is beautiful and amazing in its own way. And who doesn't love Matthew McConaughey? Must watch.

15th November 2014

People leave and we feel abandoned and sad and pathetic. But the thing is that everyone comes back and it is just a matter of time. I have heard people say this all the time and I have caught myself believing that this is true because the alternative is just too depressing but it is also the truth. People don’t come back, not completely anyway. Things never go back to being the same. 

We ask people to promise that they won’t leave and we ask them if they will stay and when  they say yes we feel a moment of safety like we won’t have to feel abandoned and sad and pathetic anymore but the truth is that there is always something that can make them say “well I lied’. People always leave and that is just a matter of time. 

I have done it and now I know, very well, what the other person must have felt. I mean this entire year has been about people leaving and I guess I should get used to it by now but it still sucks the same. I just repress my feeling, ignore them and act like I don’t care. But the thing is that no matter how much you try to not deal with something, it still follows you around like a bitch. You start to feel sad and depressed and you just can’t figure out why. Over time you start to feel like you are not good enough because everybody leaves. You become insecure and under confident and keep trying to impress someone. You put on a mask to make people stay and then you wonder why you aren’t happy. And then they also leave and the cycle goes on. 

I guess people expect us to become stronger but I didn’t. I just became worse and needy and desperate. And I don’t know what to do. I make mistakes, no doubt. But I care and nobody cares back enough. And even thinking about them makes me feel even more pathetic like how could I even fall back into the same trap?? But I can’t stop myself from trying and believing that there is someone different out there. And this feeling, this hope is taking over my life. It’s like my life isn’t moving and I am waiting for something that doesn’t even exist and I can’t help it. 

Maybe in 5 years I will laugh at all the pity things that I used to care about but right now I can’t help but be stupid…