False Impressions

Who would not agree that we live in peaceful times? Everyone in the world is happy, leading harmonious lives and enjoying equal rights and liberty, which is guaranteed to one and all by the constitutions of their countries and the laws of world bodies, right? Why dies this statement sound so shallow, so wrong?

Well, let me put it this way. Nothing short of the statement, “Man is Immortal” is farther from the truth. We see what we want to see, we believe what we want to believe. We like to think of the world as a calm, beautiful lake in the middle of a lush green valley. Picturesque, is it not? This however is no more than a mirage, created by us to disguise and conceal the ugly truth. In reality, our world is actually a lake, a lake of piping hot magma in a red hot crater of an active volcano.

Everyday, every passing minute of every hour, the poor are oppressed by the rich. The so called superior races and castes control the inferior ones. Whether it be the blacks scorned by the whites or the Jews looked down upon by many, the story is the same. Oppression, neglect, desperation, jealousy, anger, agony and suffering. These are the emotions faced by a large fraction of the human population. No cure has been found for this epidemic, this deadly scourge that we call, racism.

Muslims vs. the Hindus. Who is right? God knows. Hindus treat the Muslims as ruthless killers and terrorists. While a minority among the Muslim community does resort to such crimes, they cannot all be branded as terrorists. An equal number of Hindus resort to such crimes as well. However, instead of resolving differences and tying the loose bonds, the fighting continues ands with it, terror and oppression reign as tyrants while innocents are forced o be martyrs.

Millions of people all over the world, do not get two square meals a day. A large fraction of children are either undernourished or suffer from serious diseases. Wives are ill treated by husbands, kids are forced to work under disgusting conditions and young girls are forced to sell their bodies. Young boys and girls are even taught “The Art” of Begging from the day they are born.

We must open our eyes to this monstrosity before it becomes the cause of our downfall. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King were among the few people who tried to make a difference. However these few people cannot do it alone. We must all join hands for this cause. We can all work together to stop this force. Every morning, when we wake up, we can make a choice. We can choose to write history in the 86400 seconds given to us. We can spark a change, be the difference and douse the firs of our world. Or we can live silently, silently ignoring the troubles of our world and enjoy the cool tangy breeze of our make believe valley.