International Law Enforcement Academy, Roswell, USA- Convocation Address- Justice Durai Karunakaran

Esteemed Master of the ceremony Mr. Frank Taylor, Honourable Chief Guest Judge Steve Bell, Respected Sheriff of Roswell, Members of the Law Enforcing Agencies, distinguished guests, beloved ILEA members of the staff, dear colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Morning to you all. We, the participants of the Ilea’s Advanced Leadership Training Course Session 52, will undoubtedly treasure the beautiful moments of learning, sharing and caring and cherish those moments for the rest of our lives, wherever we are and whichever position we hold in our respective countries. Thanks to ILEA and to the adorable souls behind this great Institution. Thanks to Roswell and its friendly people for their wonderful hospitality. Thanks to the State of New Mexico for its blissful serenity. Thanks to the United States of America for its remarkable generosity. Through this training course you have empowered us, not only with knowledge and experience but also with the ability to light other candles back home, and to impart what we have gained here, to others in our countries. Indeed, knowledge is power and an imperishable treasure, which can neither be stolen from us nor be destroyed by any force. This is what you have conferred on us today. On behalf of each and every participant of this Course, I say a big THANK YOU to ILEA and all its staff for everything you have done for us to acquire that precious knowledge and to inherit that imperishable treasure.          

Human imagination, confined as it is by experience and biology, can grasp only small fractions of the space in the infinite universe and the cosmic period we pass through on this global village.  Our tendency, therefore, is to focus on the “here” and the “now”; here is being whichever part of the Earth we happen to inhabit, whether America, Africa or Asia; and now is being a reckoning of the biological period we happen to live in, whether Stone age or Digital age in human history. Sadly, though, the history of our time is now recorded only in electronic binaries as bits and bytes on chips with no guarantee of future readability. As technologies change, we may find our history frozen in forgotten formats. The entire era of human history, ideas and civilization will be lost without trace, posing problem even to alien archaeologists, if they happen to explore our planet.

However, with a bit of a stretch, we can widen our field of vision to encompass the whole of our planet and the ages it has passed through.  We are familiar with the life forms that lived in the Jurassic Period and most of us could spot the T-Rex in a crowd of dinosaurs.  We understand how continents were formed, how the White Sands was deposited here in the New Mexico and the mechanics behind building pyramids.  We can recognize the skylines of New York and Paris, locate Albuquerque or Baghdad on a map, name most of the oceans and continents, recall great wars and recount advances in civilization.

Where our vision fails however, is when we look ahead.  Even the greatest minds our species have managed to produce fall short, when looking into the future.  Leonardo Da Vinci drew flying machines, but radio did not occur to him.  Einstein understood the relativity of mass and energy: he could equate E=MC²: but, had he been with us now, he would most probably, be astonished by our internet and e-mail.  One hundred years ago those who tried to look a century ahead thought we would all be in flying cars and vacationing on the moon, but few if any, would have predicted the density of our satellite orbits and cell phone networks.

Some do try to forecast the impact of their time on the Earth’s tomorrows. But, too often these predictions are influenced by their narrow socio-political and economic paradigms and hidden agendas. At times, national policies of some countries are being formulated on global issues such as environmental pollution, climate change, nuclear non-proliferation, international terrorism, globalisation of democracy, liberalisation of world economy, eradication of poverty and HIV AIDS with vested interest driven by geo-political and self-centred considerations, forgetting their voiceless brothers and sisters who are economically and technologically less fortunate living in the remote corners of Africa, Small Island States and other parts of the developing and under developed world. Our present mindset assumes that advancement in science and technology has made chores easier or burdens lighter and extrapolates into a brighter future bringing us maximum comforts and happiness.  Rarely if ever, do inventors of laboursaving devices, technologists, industrialists, manufacturers and owners of intellectual properties see pollution, waste, degradation of forests, loss of habitat, depletion of ozone layers, global warming and increases in disease, famine, flood and wide spread poverty as off-shoots of their wonderful new products.

Although underestimating by far the deadly potential, many saw danger at the dawning of the nuclear age, but millions of deaths from conventional weapons offset the impact, diluted the fear and justified the use of the Atomic Bomb, setting a precedent for war that haunts us today. Still, no lessons learned and a new age of nuclear holocaust is dawning in the East posing a potential threat to the very survival of human race on this planet. Using precious resources to build such weapons of mass destruction, to shore up defences, to amass armies and to enrich uranium is a luxury of the devil. We need to understand just how extravagant an expense and thoughtless act this is. We are spending our resources to dig our own graves.  No longer do we march into battle field with swords born from a home-forge drawn, and face an enemy riding ahorseback across a plain.  Enemies can be far-flung, territorially invisible, terribly technological, terminally terroristic, biologically diabolical, lethally pathological and modern machines of war cost billions of dollars and entire economies could function healthily with the budgets allocated towards their manufacture and deployment.  The end cost, the final bill to be paid, could easily be the end of life on Earth.

Hundreds of years ago, leaders of one of the indigenous tribal people of North America understood their own lack of foresight and made it a policy to weigh all decisions according to the impact each could have on the seventh generation from theirs.  A great deal of imagination must have been expended in postulating ramifications.

Seven generations back from today would put us around the year 1760. What could the hunting or gathering native tribes of this place - what is now the United States of America - have done to impact our world? Acorns planted could now be venerable oaks, having bred forest around them. Streams rerouted might be present day rivers. Frequently used footpaths have been the templates for modern highways.

Seven generations ahead is about the year 2250. What is within our power to impact the citizens of that time? No longer are we a simple-living species, our behaviour has consequences beyond our time and generation, for which we are accountable. We are and continue depleting the atmosphere of elements vital to life and cause the global temperature to rise, resulting in upheavals in weather patterns. We directly cause the extinction of hundreds of species of plant and animal life every week. Our constant and growing demand for fuel, food, space and military power is pushing us to the boundaries of our resources and make us live beyond our means, which creates conflicts in the process; conflicts between ourselves and our neighbours, ourselves and our environment; such conflicts our Mother Earth has never ever experienced before nor has its children, the mankind.

Native Americans of Fifteen-Fifteen could not have blown up the world, even if they’d not had future generations at the top of their agenda. Nor could they have poisoned the atmosphere, warmed the planet or caused the extinction of one hundred and fifty species of life per week. But, now we are capable of doing it and are in the process of doing it.

Our inability to imagine the world much beyond our time on it clearly illustrates the need right now to create a “New Civilisation” forging the “Law Enforcement Communities of the world” to unite, cooperate, coordinate and effectively enforce the laws that are vital for the very survival of humanity on this planet so as to protect them from a nuclear annihilation, international terrorism, and preserve our Mother Earth and safeguard the rights of our children to inherit a safe and healthy ecology. In fact, in the world leaders’ meet in Paris last Friday, in the bleak outlook of a major new report on climate change the French President Jacques Chirac, rightly called for an urgent economic and political "revolution" to save the planet and the mankind and warned that we are on the historic threshold of the irreversible.

Having said that, standing here on the soil of Roswell, on the gorgeous land of New Mexico, breathing the ILEA Oxygen, fortified by the knowledge and the experience gained from the Training Course, let us resolve now on this graduation day, before this august gathering, on behalf of all participating countries namely: Botswana, Mauritius, Seychelles and Uganda, and  on behalf of all the children of the world - who are born and yet to be born- that we will strive to create a world free of terrorism, narcotism and money laundering; a world that is free of nuclear arsenals and environmental destruction. We will enforce the relevant laws effectively without fear or favour making good use of what we have learned from the Course and give birth to a new law enforcement culture that is rooted in the values of freedom, peace, liberty, equality, civility and unity of humanity. This would obviously result in Justice for all in African continent and elsewhere. We remind ourselves that “Justice” is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone; whether rich or poor; whether they agree with us or not; wherever they live, no matter; whatever be their race or the colour of their skin or their religious faith or political philosophy. But, the fact remains that we are all the children of the same Mother Earth - leaves of the same tree - feathers of the same bird, tides of the same ocean and part of the same Universe. We all breathe the same air and lit by the same Sun; Nature always reminds us the oneness of our race, the mankind. We are one and we are the world. Here and now we have the potential for change. It remains within each and every one of us - the potential- to change our perception, attitude, and outlook to create a new work culture in the realm of law enforcement. We can fly higher and higher each day and reach the sky; we can create a new world order and make a difference not only for you and me, but also for the generations to come.

By working together with fervour and commitment, by beating the same drum loudly and without pause, we, the law enforcement citizens of the world, the graduates coming out of this Academy today, can propel the necessity for an effective enforcement of laws and create a new work culture and world order to ensure international peace and security and prosperity to all and above all for the continuity of humanity on this planet.

Could there be a greater gift to our future generations than enforcing the laws effectively, to protect our societies, the mankind and their world and more valuable an endeavour for those of us whose realm is law enforcement?

Could there be a greater joy for us and a greater meaning to our learning than recording our deep appreciation, profound gratitude and heart-felt thanks to ILEA and its members of the staff? We all came from different corners, met here in Roswell, shared, cared, loved and learned. All good things inevitably come to an end. The curtain comes down today. And now we have to part. This is a sad note of our heartbeats, as we sing the glory of the day. May God bless one and all Once again thank you very much for your kind indulgence.