Leaving all facts aside, the reaction should be? If we dig deep enough we will find that every present country is built over the ruins of another. Will two mistakes make a right or a bigger blunder? All aside when a nation is attacked and it is not war – what do we do? Go to war? Nuke them? How many are still okay with all those wars? And by going to war are we ensuring that we “catch” the ones responsible? Were we able to do so in our own country? How many of our “leaders” are not criminals? It is very easy to express emotion – but what we need at this juncture is not emotion – but a solid thought. We should defend ourselves but not at the cost of first strike.
At the individual level – at such a personal loss – I too would be in a rage – a killing rage at that. There’s no denying that! It is up to the rest to ensure that this rage cools down and takes the form of an action to detangle the situation. The path that will be taken for the action depends on how and who does the talking at that time.
Religion cannot be weeded out of human kind. A person needs an anchor, a corner stone that provides support and direction. And that somehow for human kind to a large extent is religion. Blaming religion for insane acts committed by a person or persons is not a good idea – blame the people who are using it for their own personal gains and agenda. Every idea / technology has two sides like any argument. The “good” of it depends on how it is used and perceived.
Democracy like all ideas has its own good and bad sides of it – By now we know either sides or most of them. We have leaders and netas to demonstrate this. It isn’t easy since it places the responsibility on the individual. We also have the freedom to “choose” who we want. Likewise, we also have a choice, an option on how we deal with the current situation. We can cry out for war and choose to make more widows and orphans, or we can choose to present our case in a manner that will get more support to fight against. But, by choosing the second option we are not safe either. We need to be more alert to any situation that may arise. The only way a democracy can be more alert is for its participants to be aware.
But, the basic human nature is against others being aware (question yourself – and you will see that the preferred choice most times would’ve been “need-to-know-basis” at some point or other). Empowerment and delegation require a high degree of self-confidence. We empower our politicians and delegate such important jobs – the future of ours as well as the country’s without a single coherent thought and without being aware of what we are doing. The first reaction to awareness is awe – and then fear. This is overcome by the confidence that we can instil, build.
This is a long and arduous task – we have accomplished a lot and we have more to – but we have started down this path as a country a long time ago and for accomplishing the final goal we need to keep going.
The tone of the individual voice changes in a mob – it no longer is intelligible and is only heard as a roar without words. I hope that my voice is never lost in the roar of a mob.
And life always finds a way...
Saturday, December 13, 2008
వాట్!!! - పార్ట్ II
The west is in a furore over the attacks some terrorists have committed. But, UK is not new to these activities – remember the IRA anyone? US takes care by fuelling strife in the middle east. Let us diverge a bit – Pearl harbour caused a fatality and wounded of about 4,000 odd. And in retaliation the strife caused is – directly 80,000 and almost 140,000 due to radiation – not counting the generations that were affected. Even with the basis of war – can’t we call it terrorism? During WWII – US played neutral and did “business” by implementing a “cash n carry” strategy, a pure capitalist stratagem and nothing more. When a person does it for himself – you can call it whatever you wish to – but when a nation does it – it’s called strategy, national development etc., etc. But then, maybe we attribute it to the blunders of a nation in its infancy or teens (?).
Let’s move on a bit – a religious cult (?) with a history of almost millennia and half making blunders – is that commendable? Agreed that the times dictated annexation and raiding were the norm, but do we make it into a law and follow it into the 21st century? This same question can be posed to various organizations. Various reasons can be given but the question in itself remains unanswered. A small misguided groups’ upraising or rebellion can be understood as something done in ignorance or frustrations due to various reasons. But, something that is supported by various countries either openly or covertly cannot be called anything else but a motive for destabilization and excessive greed. A business ploy to gain control; ambition of world domination – fuelled equally by both sides. And of course the side that loses will be bitter.
Let us talk about “aggressive” religions – do we hear about “Mongol” terrorists? They did have a very active out-door life. Why don’t we have “Viking” ones? They were notoriously out-door oriented! And were majorly into contact sports! For that matter – we have our very own indigenous home grown variety of notorious our-door sports experts. We have them still striking terror into some parts of the country – but they are not terrorists (?). But – none of them made a “religion” out of it.
There are always extremists in any religious followers. Ardent, dedicated, blind faith – but to carry it further than ones personal space it not advisable, nor is it advisable to defame the same religion one follows.
But, when some elements do this why is it that others do not condemn their actions?
Let’s move on a bit – a religious cult (?) with a history of almost millennia and half making blunders – is that commendable? Agreed that the times dictated annexation and raiding were the norm, but do we make it into a law and follow it into the 21st century? This same question can be posed to various organizations. Various reasons can be given but the question in itself remains unanswered. A small misguided groups’ upraising or rebellion can be understood as something done in ignorance or frustrations due to various reasons. But, something that is supported by various countries either openly or covertly cannot be called anything else but a motive for destabilization and excessive greed. A business ploy to gain control; ambition of world domination – fuelled equally by both sides. And of course the side that loses will be bitter.
Let us talk about “aggressive” religions – do we hear about “Mongol” terrorists? They did have a very active out-door life. Why don’t we have “Viking” ones? They were notoriously out-door oriented! And were majorly into contact sports! For that matter – we have our very own indigenous home grown variety of notorious our-door sports experts. We have them still striking terror into some parts of the country – but they are not terrorists (?). But – none of them made a “religion” out of it.
There are always extremists in any religious followers. Ardent, dedicated, blind faith – but to carry it further than ones personal space it not advisable, nor is it advisable to defame the same religion one follows.
But, when some elements do this why is it that others do not condemn their actions?
వాట్??? - పార్ట్ I
The last few days have been very tense, not just for people of Mumbai but for the whole of India. These strikes talk of professional commando style operations and not of some run-of-the-mill just recruited, trained in 2 months terrorist. This tells us the kind of camps that exist for terrorist training – more like a professional spy organization training commandos.
For someone to take up such an operation - the persons must’ve been instilled with such patriotism or hate. Emotions of such heightened Patriotism result only when a country is under attack. No such situation exists for our neighbors – India pre/post Moghul/British or current has not attacked any other country.
It was India that was always under attack from various groups nomadic or otherwise (Aryans / Romans / Mongols / Turks / Persians / Arabs / British / French / Spanish... the list is endless). Most of them settled down and made this country of ours theirs, called it their homeland. The populace of India absorbed all this and entwined all these “foren” influences into it. And our religion – Hinduism – is not a religion but a way of life, ensconced all of the varieties, various ways of life into itself. It absorbed the good and the bad equally – but never turned ugly itself. It is not that in our own history kingdoms were made by sword, and religion – though Hinduism – was spread by might and sword. But, soon we realized that that is not the way to do so – and abandoned that way.
We have grown with the times! Hence the flip side of it – the attacks are simply of hatred.
Some foolishly still cling to the age old, out-dated concepts and never want to grow up. They are blinded by… who knows what? This blindness and foolishness leads to insecurity and a major inferiority complex – usually exhibited as pseudo superiority. This was in no way helped by the attitude of the rest of the world which had its own inferiority complex – stemming out of financial superiority but no cultural content or basis. This perceived threat and the “minority” complex (helped by our generous netas) has helped only to instill hate, but not confidence.
As in any other country – politics fueled this hate into a raging turbulence and now has defamed a religion.
For someone to take up such an operation - the persons must’ve been instilled with such patriotism or hate. Emotions of such heightened Patriotism result only when a country is under attack. No such situation exists for our neighbors – India pre/post Moghul/British or current has not attacked any other country.
It was India that was always under attack from various groups nomadic or otherwise (Aryans / Romans / Mongols / Turks / Persians / Arabs / British / French / Spanish... the list is endless). Most of them settled down and made this country of ours theirs, called it their homeland. The populace of India absorbed all this and entwined all these “foren” influences into it. And our religion – Hinduism – is not a religion but a way of life, ensconced all of the varieties, various ways of life into itself. It absorbed the good and the bad equally – but never turned ugly itself. It is not that in our own history kingdoms were made by sword, and religion – though Hinduism – was spread by might and sword. But, soon we realized that that is not the way to do so – and abandoned that way.
We have grown with the times! Hence the flip side of it – the attacks are simply of hatred.
Some foolishly still cling to the age old, out-dated concepts and never want to grow up. They are blinded by… who knows what? This blindness and foolishness leads to insecurity and a major inferiority complex – usually exhibited as pseudo superiority. This was in no way helped by the attitude of the rest of the world which had its own inferiority complex – stemming out of financial superiority but no cultural content or basis. This perceived threat and the “minority” complex (helped by our generous netas) has helped only to instill hate, but not confidence.
As in any other country – politics fueled this hate into a raging turbulence and now has defamed a religion.
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