WORLD TERRORISM

It’s a fact that nowadays there is a number of problems, from which we are unable to escape and hide. It’s impossible to run away from them in any other city or country- they get you wherever you are, because these problems are global. They are common to every human living on the large globe called the Earth. I believe the problem of world terrorism to be the most burning and urgent question, because every day, watching news, we hear about barbaric and cruel acts of violence, taking off lives of millions of innocent men all over the world.
Let’s look at the etymology of the word terrorism. Terror, the root of the word, derives from the Latin verb terrere meaning to frighten. According to its etymology, terrorism’s main purpose is to keep people in awe. It’s true that nowadays all of us live in the state of fear, because we don’t know when, where the act of terrorism will take place, who will suffer next time.
From past experience people tend to avoid overcrowded places; we are afraid of staying at home, using underground and even travelling by bus, plane or train. So, isn’t world terrorism which makes life of everyone a misery an acute world issue?
Though all of us know what terrorism is, it’s not so easy to give it a precise definition, because this word has political and emotional connotation. It’s better to say that terrorism is a political tactic, directed to make local authorities or government carry out terrorist’s demands or to intimidate enemy, to make the situation unstable in all spheres of the society. The act of terrorism may be practiced by a person or a group of them, religious groups or a political party or even by a state.
Each act of terrorism is a performance directed to have an impact on a really large audience. I mean that its aim is not just to kill dozens or hundreds of innocent men, but to influence consciousness of the multitude, to shock people, make them be afraid of power of an unknown enemy. In this, there’s no matter how many innocent people will suffer (of course, the more the better); but what is much more important is the effect which it will produce on the society.
According to scientists, terrorism may be the manifestation of political and social views. Patriotism, nationalism and racism are also reasons for terrorism. Religion may also turn people into terrorists. In most cases they use religious views only as a cover, because any religion teaches people to be kind to others, but not to kill them.
It’s a naïve person who thinks that humanity came face to face with this problem only in the 21st century. For example, the second part of the 19th century was the first time when Russia made the acquaintance of terrorist groups. Sergey Nechaev, the founder of People Retribution (Народная Расправа), was the first man who called himself a terrorist in 1869.
Certainly, the most prominent acts of terrorism happen in the 21st century. Take as an example the 11th of September 2001, when tragic events took place in the USA. In the morning that very day 19 terrorists hijacked 4 passenger planes, crashed 2 of them in the World trade Centre and one into the Pentagon. As a result, we have 3000 innocent people dead and completely collapsed World Centre’s Twin Towers.
That very day marked the beginning of the war against world terrorism. That very tragedy showed a government of every country that it’s high time to unite and act together against a new faceless enemy. So, nowadays struggle against terrorism is in the agenda of the United Nations Organization (UNO). 13 international conventions concerning antiterrorist activity are elaborated by this organization. On the 19th of September 2006 the UNO adopted the Global Counterterrorist Strategy which presupposes common for all countries strategical methods of struggle against terrorist groups.
Summing it up, I can say that 8 years have already passed since the 11th of September, thousands of loaded words about world safety have been pronounced by the authorities, but we still come across with new crueler acts of terrorism. Unfortunately, nothing has changed. While the authorities are saying mere words, we can’t but be more attentive to what happens around us and hope that we won’t be next victims.