We are passing through cataclysmic times. Every day bodies of innocent men women and children are literally blown to shreds and shanties of the already impoverished people turned into ashes. This is happening not only in our country but in many other places on the planet because the selfish ends of the world powers have to be met, no matter what global upheavals they might cause. Some visionaries had long ago foreseen this scenario they include Sir Winston Churchill, the pre-eminent visionary of his times, who had presided over the colossal devastation and destruction of the second world war and seen the human suffering of unimaginable scale that it had brought in its wake. Mr Churchill, I remind you, had warned; "Projects undreamed of by past generations will absorb our immediate descendants, forces terrific and devastating will be in their hands, comforts, amenities, pleasures will crowd upon them but their hearts will ache and their lives barren if they have not a vision above material things. And with the hopes and powers will come dangers out of all proportion to the strength of their character or efficacy of their institutions. Once more the choice offered will be between the blessing and the curse. Never was the answer that will be given harder to foretell". He also wrote, "Without an equal growth of mercy, pity, peace and love, science herself may destroy all that makes human life majestic. There never was a time when the inherent virtues of human beings, the hope of immortality and disdain of earthly power and achievements, were more necessary for safety of the children of men". -KHALID FARUQ, Lahore, December 26