What should we do to free our planet from terrorism?

Question

Human society, from origin until now, has always been at war within and between groups and has led to two World Wars. Presently, terrorism and low intensity warfare are affecting many parts if the world.

As the current global population of 6 billion increases to 8 billion by 2025, national and international conflicts will continue to be a source of concern for humanity. When evil minds combine, good minds have to work together and combat. In this context, what are the out-of-the-box solutions to free the planet earth from terrorism?
Your answers when processed and implemented can lead to a peaceful, happy and safe planet earth.

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Additional Details

Yahoo! Staff Notice: Since only one best answer is possible, Sugato Mitra’s answer is being picked as the best. Congratulations to Sugato.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

First, let me wish Your Excellency a very happy and prosperous new year. I am Sugato Mitra, a 41 year old man from Durgapur in West Bengal. As a very ordinary citizen of this great nation, I consider it an immense privillege of mine to be presented with an opportunity to answer a question which happens to cross the mind of someone who is not only the Honourable President of India but also happens to be one of the greatest intellectual minds of this country.

A look at the very elementary picture of terrorism reveals certain things:

1. A handful of immensely wealthy, influential and powerful people provide the leadership. In many instances they lead a justifiable movement. In an equal number of instances they have a personal axe to grind in the garb of mass movement. Some of them are prepared to come out and discuss their grievances. Others prefer to remain away from the public eye.

2. The foot soldiers are almost invariably youth of impressionable minds. It is also commonly seen that they come from ordinary or poor families.

The governments of different countries faced with the problem of terrorism has to do some serious and honest soul searching. The discussion below, tries to combine the aforesaid two aspects in an effort to find a solution to terrorism.

The question of origin of the terrorist movement has to be addressed first. Why did a terrorist movement arise? Was it because a certain section of the population justifiably demanded something, but was denied the same? In that case, how does the fulfillment of their demands fit into the overall national interest? If conceding to their justified demand does not affect national interests adversely, there is no harm in agreeing to them. But if those are contrary to the overall national interests then there is no question of conceding. But the issue should be considered objectively and impartially.

This seems to be particularly pertinent in the Kashmir problem. Here we see not only Kashmiris demanding their own independent homeland, but also a neighbouring country abetting the terrorist movement against India. Here Pakistan clearly has an axe to grind and in all probabilities ultimately want to annexe Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan and all Pakistan sponsored Kashmiri leaders should be firmly ignored in solving the problem.

The Government of India should address the people of Kashmir directly, especially the Kashmiri youth. The message should ring loud and clear: we want our Kashmiri brothers and sisters to be with us now and forever. India doesn't want to bribe Kashmiris with special concessions to be a part of this country. India wants every Kashmiri to be equal partners in the country's progress to prosperity. Every effort should be made to initiate progress in J&K through setting up of institutes of excellence and modern industries. The mind of the Kasmiri youth should be weaned away from the narrow confines of terrorism and divisiveness and exposed to modern liberal thinking through these institutes. When he or she is adequately trained, there should be adequate modern industries where he or she can put his hand on modern machines and applications. Hopefully, the Kashmiri youth will thereafter forsake the gun and terrorism and separatism as his or her aspirations in life, which are no different from any other normal youth, marches towards the path of fulfilment. Terrorism and its associated perils will be an unviable option compared to the peace and tranquility of a normal human life.

The same approach needs to be implemented in North East India as well. Development should be the dominant ingredient in the government's efforts to tame terrorism. Development for the masses, especially the youth and harsh repressive measures for the handful of masterminds can adequately tame terrorism.

Your Excellency, as you have rightly pointed out, the human population is growing and scarce natural resources are under pressure. If a system of equitable distribution could be worked out, it would leave greater number of people satisfied. But sadly this doesn't happen practically with the result that a lot of us feel deprived and aggrieved. This is particularly relevant to India and its exploding population. If the pressure of population on resources decreased, attrition would lessen consequently and quality of life of the average Indian improve considerably. That would also mean a drastic reduction in terrorist activities and chances thereof. Population control in India should not only be a slogan but a visible and effective national movement.

Adding to our woes, powerful nations want to corner a major share of the scarce natural resources. Terrorism originating from the Middle East has its roots in Western countries trying to control and corner the oil reserves located there. Kuwait was attacked by Iraq for its oil. The US started the Gulf War against Iraq to free Kuwait. And now Iraq is the latest hotbed of terrorism. Of course there is the Palestinian problem as a direct consequence of Israel's occupation. Israel can not be wished away, but it is Israel's responsibility to be the initiator of peace in the region with meaningful and acceptable efforts.

The UN of late has unfortunately come out as a pretty ineffective forum to implement peace. It has to be made effective. India is aspiring for a permanent seat in the Security Council. If she succeeds, India should hopefully provide solutions to end attritions accross the world and end terrorism. But right now responsible nations must unite against terrorism. The group should not only be composed of nations facing this threat, but also those still out of its tentacles. Terrorism should be tackled globally and not individually. When the World Trade Center came crashing down, the whole world condemned. But sadly, such reactions of universal solidarity are seen when terrorism kills innocents in India.

Sanity and responsibility are still dominant in the world. The need of the hour is unity of sane and right thinking people cutting across national barrier and ideologies. When they unite, greedy and aggressive regimes will be forced to take a backseat. Let there be greater exchanges between the youth of all countries who want peace in their own country and also internationally. Let ideas flow freely. Voices should be raised when a powerful nation tries to bully a weak nation into submission and thereby open another front for terrorism. Such nations, however powerful, should be shunned by one and all. And let the condemnation be equally loud and clear when terrorism strikes and kills innocents.

A check on the population growth, quality education and living standards, development and employment opportunities for the youth and respect for humanity and universal human values will ultimately wipe out terrorism one day. This may appear Utopian right now. But I am optimistic of seeing this day arrive soon. And with this fervent hope, Your Excellency, I end my humble submssion.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Of the shortlist put together by the editorial team, I have selected 2 answers by Sugato Mitra and Karthik Durairajan as 1 and 2, in that order. In my opinion, to a certain extent possible solutions emerge from a combination of these two answers.

Answer 2

To Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
Hon. President of India.

Respected Sir,

To free our planet from terrorism, the leaders of all the countries that inhabit our planet should join together…not to fight terrorism, but to find solutions to unresolved issues, which is the root cause of terrorism.

My feeling is that when people are willing to lay down their lives for a cause, then their cause should be looked into more seriously. World leaders from all the countries of the world should depute their finest legal brains to form a kind of ‘World Controlling Body.’ (WCB) This ‘Team’ of legal experts should collectively look into the various unresolved issues that make up the ‘cause’ of several terrorist groups around the world. They should look into the pros & cons of every issue and try and work out an amicable solution by unanimous decision. This decision should be binding on the countries involved. I leave it to the intelligentsia of the world to formulate the nitty-gritty of this ‘WCB.’ What rules they should follow, what force they can use to execute these rules etc., etc. The body should be more potent than the UNO has proved to be so far. Certain fundamental laws of the land should be unified and the same law should be practiced in all countries of the world regardless of which religion or race holds sway in any given country. These laws of the world should overrule all religious laws. Perhaps it could be made the responsibility of the Religious heads to enforce the rules of the world on their followers. They should be held accountable for the quantum of crimes committed by their followers…

Once unresolved issues start getting amicably resolved terrorism will automatically disappear.

Answer 3

Dear Mr.President

The roots of terrorism has been spread so deep routed that it cannot be uprooted in a single shot.The people into terror activities have been brainwashed to such an extent that they have forgotten their humane values and their responsibilities to the human society.

I think a
Secular environment (belief in one religion ... Humanity)
Basic education to make realize the true aspect of life and ultimate goal to be loved by Almighty....
NO inequalities (..wiping the quota systems ...)
Basic food and shelter for the homeless and above all LOVE for all including Animals will make a difference

I know this seems near to impossible ... But it can be implemented within us ...Cos little drops of water make a mighty ocean...

Thank you Sir and Yahoo for given me such a privilege

H.G.Srivatsa

Answer 4

The answer is very simple: Quit killing each other. Quit building bombs. Quit hating different people. Quit trying to press your politics on others. Quit trying to conquer lesser people.

Work with others. Collaborate with others. Include all countries. Work with other countries to deliver aid, medicine and foos to sick and starving people. Quit hoarding all your money. Quit trying to be a superpower.

If we don't do these things, we will be dead.

It really is that simple.

Answer 5

its very simple. one state one nation one earth to everyone will settle the dispute. wealth to everybody .but it will never happen. ego between the developed and developing and under developed. one man to rule or one humble human to rule the whole world.

Answer 6

Everybody must follow Quran because it is the word of the creator of the planet.From Adam A.S to Muhammed S.A.gave the same message to human beings and humanity.

Answer 7

sir,
im a student of class xii. according to me the root cause of terrorism is probably was poverty. thus innoscent people were forced to do it for bread.even today the main cause remains the same so the first thing to be done should be to give equal oppurtunity to each human on the planet in every feild.and next would be to create awrenes among masses on the harms of doin soand believe me there are stil millions and millions of people who actualy are a part of this terrorism but dont even know the reason for doin so............. so awarenes ,brothrlyhood love, compassion, an respect for all might eradicate this sever problem for ever.

Answer 8

It is important the problem and analyse with unbiased understanding before prescribing a solution. Deep rooted problems do not have quick fixes, but here is always a start.

Inequity in societies then and now create most of the internal turmoil. Inequity creates the kind of insecurity in those that are deprived; this creates a common bond. Such insecurity creates anger; anger self destructs; the self destructed individuals become misguided. Of course in their minds their actions are justifiable. I see in Naxalites, who think their solution is better for creating societal equity; religious grps that seem to hove lost all hope to get their due; and at individual levels those that are several distrubed individuals that make the bulk of these groups.

•We have stratified our societies by class, color, race and religion. I'm not sure if we can break this in a life time. You see this is a global problem.
•As long as some minds think the other side is evil, we are not going to resolve this. This is very important. Within the last 6 years we are seeing that often insane has taken the guise of sane.
•Preaching peace alone is not going to get us anywhere either.
•But we can create an atmosphere of trust; we can create a society where people with have-nots have to die in despair (here it is asking for economical security). Meaning the upper class can live in luxury but we need a lower class that is self sufficient. We have not done this in centuries. This is getting out of hand at this point of earth's history.
•We need to educated populations of human diversity. This will be done if we start young. We are quite poised for this with global connection via wireless media. We need to create compassionate atmosphere (when I was in school, I was ridiculed for being dark skinned and not a pretty. This is happening to many kids. I see in India that many developmentally disabled people are ridiculed. What kind of upbringing these people have! This is because lack of compassion)
•Understanding religious diversity to respect other people’s right to their opinions is important. I’m proud of India’s secular heritage. Even though it is not where I expect it should be, we are still making great strides.
•My feeling is we can not erase the worlds that people want to live in, but teaching how we can embrace differences is great.
•As optimist as I’m the only think that we can do as large group is to eradicate poverty. That’s the first step, this will take care of the rest.

Thank you for raising the question, Mr. President.

Your fan,

Lakshmi

Answer 9

i think we should improve the education levels of all the people.to
remove terrorism and all sorts of socila problems.also government should provide jobs to all educated people.
terrorism occurs whem people are idle and jobless when they are engaged in something resourse ful they wont even think of terrorism

Answer 10

Behind every terrorist activity there will be a cause we have to first wipe out that cause to through away the terrorism from our planet.

Answer 11

Spreading Gandhigiri in the Planet

Answer 12

we must remove terror to remove terrorism...its the basic where we india is lagging behind.even though we were knowing the culprit in amarnath case,or attack on parliament case.....we just remained silent spectator,,,and it was there that we were wrong.terrorist has the aim to induce fear among common person,,and they are able to,,as india is going for coward step and not peace..peace can be reimposed only by removing terrorism and terrorist completely,,jai hind

Answer 13

educate..educate..and educate only by educating the uneducated billions..the world can avert terrorism or any such destructive elements..how this can be achieved..yes it can be..
give me a chance ..i can..and i can..i can show the solution.

Source(s):

my mind...supported by my open eyes and attentive ears.

Answer 14

The world will never be free of terrorism.Whilst their is religion and religious fanatics things will never change.
Many kill in the name of their beliefs but sadly they become just killers like every other killer.
Education is always a help,talking till you are blue in the face does not always help,but you can try, what is to lose?
I wish any mediator the best of luck, as sadly, we will not see the end of terrorism in our time .
Good luck to all and may the killings end.
Ian Douglas-Lee

Answer 15

to free frm terrorsim only way is by deciaring war against our neighbour country thats pakisitan bcoz all muslims are not terrrorist but terrorist are muslims only i dontblame any particular religon but this religon killing thousads of people in name of god why i donknow but if this continues we wont sit quitey we will also do wht ur religin doing bcoz ur religions people do without telling we will do with telling so if it shld not be happend than remove all facilities which the govt providing in name of minorities give equal rights to every body and stop those madaras where they creating terrors not only that mulisms shld also follow govt rules like giving birth to one baby not only tuis but govt shld avoid childrens to madaras and there shld not be any particular law to muslims they shld have same and they shld not marry more than one girl if they marry they shld be punished and u shld removespecial act 270 which is in kashmir

Answer 16

respected sir,
i am raja.i think 2 stop terror 1st it caused due neligence in border. i feel the border should be tightened.
2)to have security in main places.

Answer 17

Hello Sir,
According to me the only way to free our planet from terrorism is that our laws should be to hard crack.Immediate and severe action should be taken against the guilty who are filthing the society.As can be seen from the recent happenings that if the execution is delayed then even people like Saddam Hussain are referred to as martyrs because over the time people tend to develop a soft corner towards such persons.Moreover, giving truth serums to people like Mr.Pandher and Surinder Kohli will never bring out the real picture. It will only blurr it.Therefore, I suggest that such people be immediately executed once they are found guilty.If the law enforcement itself is strong enough then it will build a wall far greater than The Great Wall of China and it will not wither away under any circumstances.

Answer 18

You helped India make a nuclear Bomb,starting a Nuclear arms race in the region to free terrorism from our planet?

Answer 19

hmm.... cool...
tough question.....
there 100 answers to this question....... As Human Beings we should believe that we belong to the earth.... and not as country citizens...... there should be one leader- God, One religion-Love
One quality- to believe in our consicience and not ignorance!!!

Answer 20

respected sir,
i believe that to free our planet from terrorism we have to work on our mindsets i would like to quote
'love thy neighbour'
what it shows that atleast we should be human beings and love other people around u as u this will help a lot.

people are getting in to such acts because
1.attracted towards such groups because of surrounding conditions.
2. extreme inclination toward a certain belief
3. just for the sake of money

to remove these things we have to do
1.love
2.motivation
3 enough love and motivation so that people get enough to live with dignity
one more thing
war has never been solution to anything
i would like to add
there is no such good war and bad peace

Answer 21

according to me we should first take out the root of this terrorism
and also have to first solve out all petty problems going around anywhere in the world. this will result all the people to concentrate on a single problem and take a way out. and then getting the terrorism out very skilfully and after all betraying all barriers between people and uniting together so that no such events occurs again.

Answer 22

As a global society, we need to respect all of our neighbors. Respect the sanctity of life, respect the religious and political beliefs of all people.

What one person believes is not always the majority, but that person has a right to have their opinions, but also respect those who do not share the same views or beliefs.

We need to agree to disagree. What makes a free society what it is are these basic ideas.

Answer 23

Respected sir,
all this chaos happening in the world in my view is because people are not aware or bothered of the purpose of their life. human life has a purpose. a purpose of being gratefull to God for the blessings he has bestowed on each one of us and show gratitude to him by realizing him and by being helpfull people rather than becoming terrorists in the name of religion and many other things. so making our youth spiritually strong and value based education can be a solution to save our planet from the hands of terrorists. we the youth has to rise up. lets lead a virtuous and righteous life spreading the message of compassion and brotherhood. jai hind !

Answer 24

Make love, drink vodka, eat burritos, meet Brazilian girls, make more friends, visit more countries, see what world we have, appreciate it, love it. Where is the sense of humor, where is the respect for other people, ....
We need 1000 years or a major revolution in our way of thinking.

Answer 25

Brut force is the only way to finish these people

Answer 26

To The President Of India;

I am not a citizen or resident but...

Greetings and Salutations from a citizen of this most lovely planet we call home.

______________________________________…

There are many forms of terrorism, from that that begins in the home and then spreads through out the community at large.

There is the terrorism of the mind, the body and the spiritual being of the person.

There is no easy or simple fix to remedy this enigma on humanity. For as humans the world over and thru the ages we will always dispute points of view. A sad fact that a majority of people refuse to admit, but in saying that we should as a WHOLE should at least find a common goal to achieve a common ground to agree to dis-agree.

But very few governments will disclose all that they have at their disposal to protect their own interests.

Even now in this world we live in today we have a government that said to the greater community of this planet that NO OTHER government or system shall hinder their domination of the world.

What message does that send to the rest of US that live on this planet. The answers to that are many; the solutions are even more complex.

As one person with a voice I am but a whisper,
Two people we are a breeze that some-one may feel,
But with many let the storm be felt by all.

The above three lines have been repeated many times by different people the world over for change. Some of it good and some of it bad, but that depends on the perspective on which you stand.

What is needed is EDUCATION of the mind.

Not a forced indoctination for that eventually fails in the end and the outcome will be even worse.

People have said educate our young and the world will change. That is true. But why only educate the young. We should all be re-educated to be more accepting of the differences that lie within ourselves as individuals, communities and greater society.

If we want our children to inherit and possess a living planet,we must start the learning NOW.

Learn the differences of self and others.

To understand the differences that make the way we think.

The WHY of the way we are who we are.

Again the answers are complex, but never as complicated as what we think they are. The solutions are there but finding the means to get there will be a path that will be never ending.

Ideologies will change with time and so will our thinking. But we must continuously strive to learn and understand.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY WE MUST COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER!!!

Answer 27

ensure education for even the most economically deprived by providing their families sops so that the parents send their kids to school.

Answer 28

Sir , I have been in India since birth till age of 38 . Prsently I am not in India but my heart bleeds when people here overseas laugh at the news of Samjhauta express --Train blasts , 47 police officers killed in some part of India. So my answer is very straight.

Teachers have to be carefully chosen as they build the minds of future of the country. Scrutiny of Teachers should include patriotism and maturity as basic needs , it should be one of the highest respectd and paid profession so talented brains can take up the profession.
Criminals like Afzal whose crime is proven beyond doubht should be hanged on four square without any further delay giving a chance to justice servd instantly and install respect in citizens and fear in criminals.
Every one will say change in political will -- which even a blind man rcognises today but it will move only if the small things like above start moving first.

Answer 29

As Aristotle has wisely said that all human actions have one of the seven motivating factors-'greed' is one of these.Terrorism is the result of greed of the politicians worldwide-it is supported indirectly .Creat a UN like independent force( a policing force) with no political control over it-this can be created& supported by donors worldwide, and consist of voluntary ex-army/police/and supportive people.Let this force wipe out the terrorists,and their supporters who are exposed.The world-court can monitor activities of this force

Answer 30

Kill all Arabs/Muslims.

Answer 31

Root out lies and injustice....most problems will be solved....