Monday 31 July 2006
Today my struggle to wake up from my slumber was one of the greatest struggles history has ever recorded.First my brother made numerous unfruitful attempts to wake me up.It was then Nikhil Mohan,my friend,who called me. Initially I struggled to speak but eventually during the 35-minute long joyful conversation I got rid of my drowsiness. A few minutes after getting out of the bed I picked up a newspaper(The Hindu). The two main headlines on the front page read as follows:'34 children among 54 killed in deadly Israeli air strike'
and
'16 Indians die in Bahrain fire'
Another headline on the front page read '100 hurt in post-poll clashes'
There were just two other news articles on the front page. 60% of the news on the front page reported deaths and injuries all in separate incidents in different parts of the world. These news articles depressed me. I asked myself "Whats happenning in this world?","why should innocent people die?","why so much misery?".
Its not just today that we get to hear such news. Everyday is filled with the news of deaths,violence,misery. The serial blasts in Mumbai and Srinagar,the floods at various places,the tsunamies,the earthquakes,the wars and all such crap.
Just then overheard my mother informing my grandfather that his elder sister expired early in the morning. I probably had seen her a maximum of two times in my entire life but the news of her death jolted me. This reminded me of a friend's friend who had died after drowning in a dam. These two incidents help me estimate the mental agony the families of the dead are going through. I feel very bad for the near and dear ones of the dying innocent people,innocent people dying in the acts of terrorism and anti-terrorism,natural calamities,epidemics.
We proudly boast of our advances in technology. we only advance in technologoies that make our life more comfortable. We donot use the advancement in technology for prediction or forecast of natural calmities which helps us in handling them better(i.e. with less damage). We also advance in technologies that allow us to pack more explosives in smaller bombs that cause enormous damage. We also advance in technology that enables us to bomb any remote place in the world. But we donot advance in technology with the same pace that makes this world a safer place. All the advances in technology are used for military and commercial purposes. Is this all we can do?
I find the way some countries fight terrorism amusing. US bombed Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks without enough evidence that they had done it. US destroyed Iraq just because it suspected it of possessing nuclear weapons(subsequently they proved themselves wrong). Now Israel is bombing Lebanon to tackle terrorism. These acts of anti-terrorism (as they are called) are killing far more people than terrorism does.Fighting terrorism using terrorism is the solution they have found. What if many innocent people are killed? who cares???
These wars create a sense of insecurity and all other countries divert their economies towards building up of their weapon-store house.These wars also instigate terrorists to launch large(r)-scale attacks. This in-turn leads to an unending war between terrorists and so-called anti-terrorists. The means and ends of terrorism and anti-terrorism are same(though motives are different) means-bombing,violence: ends-destruction,killing of innocent people. This is justified. After all both the words terrorism and anti-terrorism have terrorism in them!
All this has made life uncertain. The train you are standing in, the bus you are sitting in, the hotel you are eating in, the building you are working in are all potential targets. You never know when you are going to be bombed. Death after life is certain but the certainity has increased manifold. The hope of seeing a tomorrow is getting bleaker by the day. Hope is what drives life. People work hard in the hope of seeing a better tomorrow. Will people work if they are not so hopeful of seeing tomorrow? Will the mankind progress if we people dont work? These are the questions that arise in my mind.Only 3 kinds of people can agree that this world is still a safe place:
1. a die-hard optimist
2.a person unmoved by the innumerous deaths
3.a person unaware of the happeniings in the world.
Leaders(both of terrorist organisations and anti-terrorist countries) join hands and work together to make this world a better and safer place to live. There is no greater cause...
posted by NikVad @ 2:57 AM
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