Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, June 21, June 28, 2025

For those of us who grew up in former colonised countries, we learnt of respect for sovereignty of independent nations, respect for international law & international fora like the United Nations, witnessed emergence of the non-aligned movement, have memories of the anti-apartheid movement, of the movement against USA’s war on Vietnam, have been witnessing the clock turn backwards, a continuous crumbling down of principles and goals of equality for citizens and between nation states. Back in force is the law of the jungle, might is right and a disgraceful on your face imperialist bully talk. Gone also are delusions of the so-called Global South with its internal divisions & proclivities that doesnt act in concert. The European powers that carried some veneer of liberal ideas & had begun to show their teeth to Israel over its genocidal war on Gaza and had recently expressed unease at the clumsy transactional ways of Donald Trump have all but fallen in line, with their distaste for Trump pushed to the back, are wagging their tale at Israel. Donald Trump recently cut short his presence at the G7 summit in Canada and headed home from where he firmly denied a suggestion by the French president that Trump was working on a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Let alone any peace talk he was soon tweeting about having full control over the Iranian airspace and later threatening Iran