War freakishness

While many were busy trying to guess the culprits in blind items that have proliferated on our social platforms of late, a war has erupted on the other side of the world.

World leaders tried to stop an outbreak, appealing to Iran to keep the nuclear power threat at bay, but as a rare planetary alignment took place on the last day of February, the die was cast.

It was only when Tehran was hit last week that the rest of humanity discovered how geopolitics can really whip us into hyper-awareness.

In just a day, change was forced upon us anew. The United States-Israel strike on Iran set off a wave of reactions that have paralyzed, terrorized and traumatized in various ways, shaking us all to attention.

Now, no one cares as much about the lurid and titillating dramas created for traction. Impending fuel price hikes will likely make us pass the time trying to think of ways to save and survive.

And what of our relatives and friends? A report says “around 2.2-million Filipinos” currently live and work in Western Asia.

Right now, travel is restricted as borders tighten and airspace above countries in the Middle East is closed to commercial traffic. Just like that, millions are immobilized.

Fortunately, communication remains unhampered. What Gulf leaders fear most right now, however (with Iran aiming to level US and Israeli locations in the region with attempted air strikes), is that major sources of energy would be destroyed. Power grids and water desalination plants support life in the hottest and driest countries in the Middle East. Without these, living conditions will be unbearable.

Energy infrastructure, which supports the industry that powers most of the world, will impact more countries if they are affected.

What would that mean for us in Southeast Asia other than steeper prices? Potential scarcity. In other words, a gut punch to the modern world. Costs of living will lead to new ways of living. Wealth will not be measured in gold, but in simplicity and freedom. Powers could shift in ways no one foresaw. What was believed to be indestructible had, in fact, been toppled.

Whatever these conflicts bring, we must brace ourselves. Violence could escalate unless someone heeds the calls for restraint. We do not want another war. It could be a crisis we have never experienced in our lifetime.

Today, we may be going about our daily activities without having to fear what the skies could drop upon us. Yet somehow we feel that something has already shattered.

Just like the shock of Covid-19, the outbreak that halted the world, we will emerge from this series of debacles much changed, whether we accept it or not.