For the past few decades, the world is in the grip of severe international threats in the form of terrorism, wars, military interventions, diseases like AIDS, poverty, food insecurity, illiteracy, environmental degradation, cross-border water and air pollution etc. But it must be noticed that there have been measures taken to solve these problems by forming organizations such as UN security council, World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights/ Refugees etc. Translation service companies are doing an equally important job to bring all nations on board and to make it easier for them to communicate despite their cultural and religious differences. In this regard, the contributions of translators/interpreters cannot be overlooked.
To solve the global issues we now encounter, we need “global organization.” And when we talk about global organization, we are in need of intercultural communication to come up with solutions collectively. Terrorism is a threat that knows no distinction of boundaries. Terrorism is spreading due to the involvement of a few states and an ever-increasing number of non-state actors. These non-state actors are Islamist organizations or groups which have some particular agendas. They fight an insidious form of warfare, often trying to instill fear in masses. In the past few decades, we have witnessed many terrorist attacks in the form of plane hijacks and suicide bombings. Kidnappings and subsequent killings of hostages is also a common technique adopted by the terrorists as a pressure tactic to get their captives released. The threats faced by the world of today are numerous, but it is not impossible to deal with them. As highlighted before, the role of translators is very important in the communication that takes place on all these international forums. Noam Chomsky says
“There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones: honest search for understanding, education, organization, action that raises the cost of state violence for its perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change—and the kind of commitment that will persist despite the temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a better future.”
The kind of war terrorist group’s fight makes it extremely difficult for the government agencies to eradicate the terrorist groups completely, or to predict who would be their next target. These terrorist groups often have networks of supporters in the local population. The international market is ridden with guns and ammunition and random acts of violence can be minimized but cannot be completely put to an end. National security now is being seen as a much broader term. It is now considered a form of human welfare that encompasses both economic and social welfare of individuals. The citizens of any country should be given proper human rights, should have the facilities to get education, health care and protection from diseases. It is also the right of a citizen to be provided with a non-toxic environment to live in and a politically, socially and economically safe one. All agreements and documentation in international forums is translated by the help of experienced translators. These organizations also recruit their own translators to work for them.
We use the term of international or “global threats” which shows that all these magnanimous problems are faced by the whole world and not by any specific country alone. Though there are developing countries that have a greater set of problems than the developed ones, these problems overlap and a sudden economic recession or crisis can create a food insecurity and price hike in the developed countries as well. The environmental issues such as global warming are also faced by the whole world. Across-the-board efforts are required to come up with long term solutions of these international threats.
