By Zhou Dongyao, researcher with the Center for World Affairs Studies，Xinhua News Agency

This summer has been filled with agitating news of natural disasters, along with terrorist attacks. What is wrong with our world? How could this happen so frequently and should we anticipate more to come?

People may have already gotten used to hearing news about terrorist attacks in the Middle East and West Asia.

July 23, a terrorist explosion took place in the Afghanistan capital Kabul, killing 60 and injuring more than 200. This year, there had already been over 3,000 refugees found dead at sea on their travels from the Middle East to Europe. 

In the United States, shooting incidents keep occurring, and even in the well-recognized “safest” city, Munich, Germany，ten people were shot and killed, shortly after news of mobs attacking passengers with axes on a train, a midnight bombing and refugee’s killing a pregnant woman in the street.

On July 14, the national day of France, a truck in Nice had run over and killed 84 people. On July 26, a man slaughtered nineteen people with intellectual disabilities in Japan.

The world seems to have gotten more dreadful. What will happen next? Security issues are making people worried about a worsening situation. Looking back on the causes, people are connecting terrorist attacks in Europe with refugee issues.

Millions of refugees have poured into Europe each year and their crime sprees are causing many to blame German Chancellor Merkel for her lenient refugee policies. Why are so many refugees flooding into Europe?

Five years’ ago there was the “Arab Spring,” which turned the Middle East into a mess. Western countries such as the US have implemented the strategy “no war, no peace, divide and rule” to control the Middle East, which is of strategic importance and seize vast oil & gas resources in the region.In recent decades, the US has been self-aggrandized to the extent that it started the war in Iraq with no solid evidence of WMD (weapons of massive destruction) and promoted its American-British democracy, launching Color Revolutions, overturning several state powers and leaving the region in chaos. 

These countries that were once stable have transformed into a cradle of terrorism. Syria has sparked more than four million refugees and yielded the malignant tumor of “ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levlant).”

Countries following the US, such as France and United Kingdom, are eating the bitter fruit of what they had sown, and dragging down Europe with them.

If the British can file a lawsuit against their former Prime Minister Tony Blair for his wrong decision to join the war in Iraq with the US, people may realize how much responsibility the US should take for current refugee issues and terrorist attacks.

European politicians should adjust their refugee policies to tackle issues comprehensively. There are also deteriorating conditions of social injustice and rich-poor disparities.

Fortunately, there’s been rapid development of science and technology, spurring greater productivity. Yet, some people have gotten wealthy too quickly, while others face worsening economic prospects with taxation policies that are unfair. 

The Gini coefficient’s growth shows that the world has come to an unprecedented disparity between rich and the poor. Even the term “richer than a king” falls behind. Some rich people have amassed  their wealth, which amounts to the GDPs of several African nations.According to a report from an international charity organization, the world’s richest 1 percent population account for 44 percent of global property in 2009, and the figure had risen to 48 percent in 2014 and is estimated to exceed 50 percent this year. But, the lower 80 percent of the world’s population have only 5.5 percent of global wealth.

Negative feelings such as envy are flaring up, along with more social conflicts, including an increase in criminal activities. Confusion and stale religious beliefs are serious problems for the world as well.

Long before the Brexit referendum and the US Democrat and Republican Party conventions, there had been much madness, making so many people feel confused about “democracy” in capitalist countries. 

The flagship democratic “one person, one vote” made the British people divided, leaving millions regretful, while Americans are not happy about their choices for President in November.

In Europe, extreme right-wing groups and populism are using the mistakes made by the authorities, instigating some young people to join the Daesh  and become cannon fodder while ordinary citizens are innocent casualties. 

The future road still hazy, but we have to march on. The above-mention problems were not formed in a short period and couldn’t be tackled quickly. Nonetheless, we shouldn’t be pessimistic, since it’s not the end of the world. 

Although terrorist attacks may not vanish right away, there’s hope that it will end eventually, just as autumn will come to drive away the heat waves of summer.