A baby was born this morning. I won’t see him for several months at the earliest and am not much of a baby or child person anyway, but my family has grown by one.
He’s born at a difficult moment for his country and for the world at large. Pakistan teeters on several verges at once: economic disaster, climate and environmental collapse, social devastation or jahalat, spinning out of control (same as always), on the back foot, desperation, giving up, it’s too late, what is the use of it all? Globally – the Chinese in Xinjiang, America returning to its nineteenth century values, Britain locked mouth to anus with itself, inequality, capitalism, intolerance, fuck you I got mine. And the planet, well, the planet will still be here when we are all gone but what is the world this child will see when he reaches my age? No more coral reefs, no glaciers, high sea levels, climate refugees, no fireflies or singing birds, only roaches and kites under white-hot hazy skies. He is from a relatively secure background so perhaps will have clean air and enough water and shelter from the heat. Welcome, child, you are born into a race of locusts, but perhaps we will realise in time, before you can speak or walk, that we must tread lightly if we are to keep walking.