IT looks as if the entire South Asia is on fire. And, Pakistan presents the worst scenario of blood and gore. Not a day passes when either the security forces have killed dozens of alleged militants or American missiles or war planes have struck into the rebellious North West bordering Afghanistan. In between the militants or their suicide bombers strike with impunity the common citizens in major cities. They fight pitched battles. This is happening all across Balochistan, Swat, Waziristan and other mountainous areas bordering Afghanistan.

All across Afghanistan since the America lead NATO forces attacked it in the wake of 9/11 in 2001, there had been killings. Several hundred innocent have fallen to the marauding guns of the security forces and the militants alike. Every day the country is being bombed to Stone Age. Nothing grows except poppy and the heroin.

India is no different. It’s Jammu and Kashmir is in some kind of perpetual trouble. Even half a million soldiers staying put there for the past 14 years at a huge human and resource cost have failed to bring even semblance of peace. Here too hundreds of civilians, security personnel and the militants have died in a never ending cycle of violence. Elsewhere there are bomb blasts, communal clashes and killings of innocents during the caste wars. Nearly one fourth of Indian districts are under Naxal siege. India’s North East is witness to violence and mafia rule. Except some statements by the leaders, couched in unintelligible jargon, there is no effort either to understand the problem or find lasting solutions. Smugness marks as political class, the rich business people and the bureaucrats loot the country.

Sri Lanka suffers from a perpetual war, declared or undeclared between the government forces and the Tamil Tigers leading to scores of death on weekly basis. All talk of political dialogue and autonomy is a sham and a cloak to loot the country.

Nepal has just come out of 10 years of war between the Maoists and the royal forces. It has lost 13,000 precious lives. Luckily royalty is finished for good. The kingship is gone and Nepal is now a full fledged republic, secular and democratic. Everyone is watching with fingers crossed the new experiment where the rebellious Maoists lead the government in that poverty stricken country.

Bangladesh, another poverty stricken country suffering from disease and malnutrition is in the hands of the army once again. Its politicians have betrayed the faith and are either in jail or being tried for corruption. There is as yet no sign of democracy sprouting again for the Bengali nation.

And, in Burma the military junta rules to plunder and with the help of both India and China whose economic stakes forbid them from siding with pro democracy forces. One of the tallest pro democracy leaders of Asia, Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for over ten years. Her election was declared null and void by the military junta and the world has just watched the people suffer not only the misdeeds of the dictators and looters, but the fury of nature too.

Any ray of hope for the devastated people. One ought to be an incorrigible optimist to think that way.

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