The term permacrisis refers to a long and permanent period of crisis as a result of different factors that come together or follow each other. It is said that the term was coined around 2022 when, after the crisis caused by the COVID virus, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia caused a relapse in the economic and social crisis caused by the notable rise in prices of oil, gas and other products. But what really reflects the permacrisis or rather the origin of the concept is the pessimism that prevails in global society, the feeling that there is no way out and that we are close to the collapse of our civilization. While the crisis is a temporary period of risks, losses and serious damage, permacrisis is the crisis in perpetuity.
The world is just recently experiencing the permacrisis but the Nagas have been living in permacrisis for more than 70 years now. The Naga political problem has evidently taken its toll on us and the results of it are seen everywhere around us. Apart from the innumerable lives lost in the conflict, the pain endured and the tears shed, it is the Naga psyche that has been hardest hit. The prevailing negativity, distrust and cynicism in Naga society today is largely because of the permacrisis fatigue. Naga people are simply tired.
Unfortunately, we are yet to see a leader who is able to guide us through this permacrisis. We are faced with a leadership crisis, both ‘overground’ and underground. For want of leadership, we have fragmented into so many splinter groups so much so that it is now apparently impossible to get back together again. There is the leadership crisis, and then there is also the lack of crisis leadership, a leader who can guide the people during the crisis. What Naga people need today, more than anything else, are real leaders who can galvanize them into a cohesive whole, leaders who can help the people overcome their differences and get them to do things better than they can do on their own.
The much anticipated yet elusive solution to the Naga political problem, of which the people are made to believe is just around the corner, is going to affect every Naga in one way or the other. In fact, it is affecting us already even before its arrival without us knowing it. Everybody is longing for a solution to the problem but not everybody knows how the post-solution scenario would unfold. One can only wait and hope that the solution on its arrival would solve the Naga permacrisis, sooner than later.