India vs Pakistan - countdown to extinction?

Worked up over last week’s confrontation between India and Pakistan, a friend messaged me. “Do you think that this time it could lead to something catastrophic?” he asked. “I worry about the world you know … terrorism, nuclear exchanges, climate change. What sort of future, if any, are we giving our children? Could this escalate to the point where we are all wiped out?”

On the one hand, I sympathised. It’s really easy to get overwhelmed by the seemingly endless strife around us. And that’s even if you are sitting in a newsroom where part of your job is to be desensitised to it all. And these are very real issues. I am certainly not advocating apathy about the environment or mass organised violence.

But on the other hand, my reply to him was … ‘it’s always been like this.’

After all 100 years ago, they were just done and dusted with World War I. With at least 15 million deaths, they called it the war to end all wars, but it certainly wasn’t. That tally was quadrupled in World War II which my grandparents’ generation lived. For my parents, it was the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, and I was a Cold War kid at a time when it felt like the Russians and Americans were just a button away from destroying the planet.

So last week’s India versus Pakistan fracas? A tad worrying yes. But it looked like a shadow play, to be honest, with the requisite posturing from both sides, particularly as Indian PM Narendra Modi is heading into an election next month. It’s tragic that 44 murdered policemen have become a mere statistic but it does look like the fatalities have been confined to those who died in the original Feb 14 attack by Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed that started the flare up.

India and Pakistan have gone to war thrice before (1947, 1965 and 1971) and twice it was Kashmir that provided the spark. That was of course in the days before they were nuclear powers, and the cumulative total of 20,000-25,000 deaths was actually less than those who died in the ill-advised, ill-fated partition of the two countries prior to independence.

Indian air force jet shot down in Pakistan.

But like it or not, there is some validity to the nuclear deterrent argument. Only a true lunatic wouldn’t hesitate about launching nuclear attacks which could devastate the planet. And surprisingly, we have managed to keep them at bay thus far. Certainly, in the current scenario, it looks as if Pakistani leader Imran Khan and Modi have managed to quell the passions that threatened to boil over into a prolonged conflict.

No tomorrow

So it wasn’t the end of the world after all, but it did get me thinking about those who really are under threat of extinction, like the good old rhinos who had the misfortune to have a single horn. This physical characteristic alone was enough to attract us troublesome, heartless and stupid humans who naturally decided to parlay it into some sort of sexual aid. Primarily because of that rhinos were hunted like there was no tomorrow. And one day, with the Sumatran and Javan subspecies numbering less than 300 collectively … there really will be no tomorrow.

The World Wildlife Fund estimates there could be as many as 100 million different species on the planet, but that we are driving 10,000 extinct every year.

I also have an interest in small tribes and cultures that exist around the world, fighting a losing battle against oblivion. In many cases, industrialisation and disease reduced their once thriving populations and assimilation hastened the process. Others managed to survive because of the remote quality of their habitat, usually either on dense jungle or remote islands.

Sentinel tribespeople aim bow and arrow at an Indian Coast Guard helicopter.

The recent case of a misguided evangelist who died trying to spread his brand of Christianity to protected nations of Sentinel island in the Andaman Sea reminded me of just how many unique cultures have slipped under the radar. In fact, I have just been reading about the Chagossians, a race of freed slaves who populated an island in the Indian Ocean only to be forcibly evacuated in the 1960s so that the US and UK could come to some agreement about setting a massive military base, now known as Diego Garcia.

To this day, there are an estimated 100 uncontacted tribes around the world, the bulk of them in densely forested areas in the Amazon and New Guinea (half of which is tragically incorporated into Indonesia as the state of West Papua and treated like a colony to be exploited for its massive natural resources).

Even closer to home, our Orang Asli may not be around in the same shape or form forever. For while the Semai, Temiar, Temuan and Jakun are relatively large, Negrito groups such as the Kensiu, Kintaq, Lanoh and Mendriq number less than a thousand. Because their numbers are so small, they tend to hang around larger Orang Asli groups and thus assimilate, meaning that unique languages and cultures which have survived many centuries are probably going to die out in a generation or two in 21st century Malaysia.

More than half of our 18 Orang Asli groups are in danger of extinction.

I went to stay with the Semai 10 years ago and did a report on it for another publication. I am planning an update within the next few weeks but I can't pretend to be optimistic that things have turned around.

What I can say, is that while the big boys (in this case Pakistan and India) make noise, there are some of us slipping quietly into the night. If we do not stop, look around and change what we have been doing, they will indeed vanish forever.

---

MARTIN VENGADESAN is a member of Team Malaysiakini.