It’s been a nice week so far
How lovely it is when there is not much news that is bad floating
around. This week has been relatively quiet and how wonderful it will
be, if all year round, and year after year, we heard little of the
negatives and only highlighted the positives, letting the world around
us beam with joy. Don’t get me wrong; there is much that is wrong and we
must always seek to fix that what is wrong. We must indeed strive hard
to minimise inequalities, ease pain, empower the powerless, cure the
sick, help the needy and the poor, douse fears of those in doubt and
give our all to make a fair-play field for the living. Yet, it does not
have to be a picture of hopelessness, petty divisive opposing, doom or
gloom.
The human spirit is strong and our leaders, our media, and each of us
must venture to harness that to fix what is wrong and bring out the best
in each and everyone of us.
Our own doing
|
Martin
Luther King Jr. |
I know I am taking a chance when I state here, that it has been a
good week this far, for I am writing this on a preceding Sunday morning
for today. But, I would rather take that chance and hope the rest of the
week will be good, than live in anticipated fear that it may turn out to
be bad. If it does, so be it for I have the satisfaction that I was not
expecting it to be so.
Most of the bad news we hear and see and learn of is of course, made
by men and women like you and I.
Even natural disasters we endure in most instances are the wrath of
nature we have brought upon ourselves. The rest is made by our leaders
of nations or people like us, for we have been senseless, uncaring
and/or callous. Some even lack the sense and sensitivity to understand
that we have been the cause of the very situations and conflicts we
dwell in, while yet others thrive in conflict, often benefiting from the
fallouts.
Manufacture and sale of weapons, continuance of wars,
miscommunication and exploitation of the fearful and weak and imposition
of other instruments of destruction are examples. More often, conflict
and mayhem is needlessly created, when they could have been avoided, if
we were able to act with a bit of selflessness, dignity, tact, care and
wisdom.
Have the tools
It is interesting that we have all the tools needed to stay out of
conflict. The Buddha Dhamma, Christian, Hindu and Islamic teachings and
ways of solid peacemakers the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther
King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. Each year Noble peace awards are made, but
very few lessons are learnt from the work or the lives of those on whom,
the awards are bestowed.
Wars or attacks against other nations are waged because there was
little or no ethical dealing among them in the first place. Greedy
designs for seeking ownership and access to resources had bred mistrust
and intolerance. Many accidents happen and lives are lost of children,
budding youth, men and women, for some among us are selfish, resentful,
indignant or ruthless. Here I mean not only the reckless drivers on the
roads, but mind-drivers, slave-drivers and drivers of hatred who operate
around ‘leaders’/decision makers, drivers of crooked deals and even
drivers of peace deals.
|
Mahatma
Gandhi |
Turning back to the week, the Channel 4 ‘Killing Fields’ episode got
us to reflect that we needed to be united and act with resolve, to
overcome such accusations. The lesson to be learnt is that as a nation
we have to be morally strong, respect the rule of law, pay due regard to
ensuring dignity for all citizens regardless of race, cast or creed and
respect the principle of meritocracy. Like was sung by the chorus upon
the famous judgment rendered by Judge Azdak in Bertolt Brecht’s
Caucasian Chalk Circle, “what there is shall belong to those who are
good for it”. The famous line from the same play used to describe the
dilemma faced by Grusha, the maid who takes on to care for the baby
prince left behind by the queen and being pursued by soldiers of the
revolution, is the same dilemma faced by many among us today; “terrible
is the temptation to do good”.
The wonder
When we get some of that right, there is not a chance for the likes
of the producers of Channel 4, their sponsors and others with vested
motives, to even dare bring such accusation against us. With that
episode behind and knowing that it in no way signals the end of such
attempts to bring us down, we now have an opportunity to take a strong
look at ourselves.
We need to take an almost back to basics view at our systems of
governance, evaluate mistakes of the past to learn from them, refrain
from being autocratic, be willing to give and take, set in place
processes of widespread consultation and move on to create the wonder of
the nation, we desire to be.
In our neighbouring India, we heard a great story of six sailors who
have been captives of Somali pirates being released last week. Being at
sea as prisoners for the last ten months, their release was apparently
made possible through the efforts of a Pakistani NGO and the Pakistani
Navy.
The Indian sailors were full of praise for the good work done by
their Pakistani brethren and their renderings were the best testimonies
we had seen for sometime for creating amity and understanding between
these two nations.
|
Nelson
Mandela |
It could not have come at a better time than when the Indian Foreign
Secretary Nirupama Rao was visiting her counterpart in Islamabad. What
impressed me most was that after a long time, I saw a key Indian
television station run, rolling-news-clips that referred to Pakistan as
‘Pakistan’ and not the usual ‘Pak’ as they did on almost all instances
before. How I hope that this positive step will be for all time and will
augur well for those two nations and for us all in the South Asian
region.
Nervous breakdowns
I also saw this week, an interesting ‘You Tube’ clip of a speech
delivered recently by ‘the bright new star of Pakistan’s political
dynasty’, poet and writer Fatima Bhutto at the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
She had been given the topic, as she made us believe; “Pakistan: Nation
on the verge of a nervous breakdown”. She in a witty and light-hearted
presentation made-out that nervous breakdowns for nations come in many
forms and it is injustice, disrespect for the rule of law, state
sponsored violence and wide-spread corruption that caused them. She
suggested that it was not only Pakistan that had such breakdown,
pointing to several powerful nations of the world and suggested that
that they needed to go through solid sessions of therapy, to overcome
them.
True bondage
On Monday this week, I was a witness to how nine students from Jaffna
and their three teachers were having fun singing and dancing at ‘Ape
Pettuw’, a school for special children in Hambantota. They later joined
15 prefects and a few teachers of the Kiula Junior School to visit the
Agro-Technical Park at Bata Atha to break-bread together, take-on a
learning experience and interact with each other to the fullest.
Observing the enthusiasm, joy and camaraderie among them, one realized
that such intimate interaction was a key way-forward strategy to ensure
true reconciliation and bondage between the people of our nation. It is
mid-year now and my mind takes me back to a unique greeting in poem, my
friend Jaydeep Nath Sur from India sent me at the dawn of 2011. I want
to share the concluding lines of that poem with you when I yearn to
have, not only nice weeks ahead, but nicer months and years and more
years, months, weeks and days ahead.
“Can we all evangelise and shatter the myth
and mirage of elusive inclusive growth
in most parts of this beautiful world
and help make this planet
A better place
A smaller place to live in
bringing a smile on every face
like the effervescence
in an early morning blossoming ‘lotus’
on an ethnic, unkempt pond
In the middle of a thousand unrealised dreams
looking us into our eyes...”
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