00:00A war does not just kill people, it kills cultures.
00:06The siege is always eternal and only aims at complete erasure of the other.
00:11At first, the buildings are hit, then museums and libraries are attacked.
00:16All sites of memories are dangerous, and therefore, they gradually cease to exist.
00:22Alone he thinks only of forgetting.
00:24Like clumsy council, everything around him falls down.
00:28Nothing else is happening.
00:29He walks the path of departure without the keys to the houses, without a sigh for the
00:34many losses or waiting for the night to inherit the place.
00:38The past will fall to the asphalt like bags worn, old with wandering, from his shoulders
00:44it falls.
00:45This is an excerpt from the Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaktan's poem, Time and Forgetting.
00:51He wrote this in response to author Naveen Kishore's letter for the yearly Siegel catalogue.
00:56The next conversation between the two writers happened on the New Year's Day of 2025.
01:02Zaktan spoke to Kishore and informed him that Israel's strike on Palestine has killed 26
01:07people.
01:08One more sad mail from Palestine, too many lives lost, meanwhile we celebrate Christmas
01:14and yet another New Year.
01:15Sorry, I can't stop the words, writes Kishore.
01:19Wars are never elsewhere.
01:21Wars have been glorified as the highest form of struggle and wars have existed from time
01:26that private properties and class emerged.
01:28The world went on to become a place of democracies and yet wars have grown and assumed new forms.
01:34There is always that lair for expansion, a free world is a dream still, and we continue
01:40to witness greed and brutality.
01:43From Ukraine to Gaza, war has reshaped borders, lives, and the global conscience.
01:49Remember, democracy never lasts long.
01:52It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.
01:56There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
02:00John Adams
02:01As we reel from the seismic shifts, war and democracy are intertwined in a disturbing
02:06new order.
02:07Wars that should have ended linger on.
02:10Democracies that should have prevented bloodshed now justify it.
02:15Majority has decayed into majoritarianism.
02:17Once a tool of freedom, democracy now commands certainty.
02:22Certainty that excludes, oppresses, and destroys.
02:25The post-Cold War world fractured into new alliances and animosities.
02:30NATO's eastward push birthed conflicts that culminated in Ukraine's agony.
02:35In West Asia, vacuums left by American withdrawal invited Russia, China, and Iran into a deadly
02:42dance of power.
02:44In Asia-Pacific, China's maritime ambitions forged new alliances.
02:48The Indo-Pacific became a theater where India finally claimed its seat but at the cost of
02:54growing tensions.
02:56Multipolarity now dominates the narrative as countries reject the binaries of democracy
03:01versus authoritarianism.
03:03Interests trump values.
03:06The global south, mocked as nebulous, asserts autonomy, challenging the outdated global
03:12hierarchies.
03:13The US remains dominant but its grasp is weakening.
03:17China's technological and military advances, Russia's enduring influence, and Europe's
03:22internal fractures signal a shifting power balance.
03:26New realities demand fresh frameworks.
03:29Project 2025 envisions a Europe defending itself while the US pivots to core interests.
03:36Ukraine's reconstruction will be a multi-billion dollar odyssey while West Asia's fragile
03:41diplomacy teeters.
03:43An order that condemns Russia's invasion of Ukraine but ignores Gaza's devastation
03:48cannot claim moral authority.
03:51The anniversary issue of Outlook India looked at wars around the world.
03:54Wars that should have ended.
03:56Senseless killings, destruction, and loss have no place in this world.
04:00The last issue was homage to all the lives and love lost.
04:03But loss of this scale cannot be wrapped up in a hundred pages.
04:07No amount of words can document the mourning and carnage of the last two decades.
04:11In this latest issue, we continue to bear witness to suffering, death, and destruction.
04:17Because bearing witness remains our duty.
04:20And witness is no longer passive.
04:22It is resistance against erasure.
04:24As the world burns, this is not a story of the past.
04:27It's the present we must survive.
04:29My daughter wouldn't hurt a spider that nested between her bicycle handles.
04:34For two weeks, she waited, until it left of its own accord.
04:39If you tear down the web, I said, it will simply know.
04:43This isn't a place to call home, and you would get to go biking.
04:46She said, that's how others become refugees.
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