Friday, November 13, 2009

Violence

I was on my way to Karachi for a business meeting and the flight was delayed so I opened up my e-mail and started checking it… one of my friends in living in Laos sent an email being upset by an event that took place near the place she lives…. She described the event as follows;

This morning Bee (my maid) told me about an accident that happened to her friend last month. The guy was driving his motor bike on a road around the corner where I live and was hit by a large truck full of sand. The truck-driver pulled over and checked out the guy who was lying on the street severely wounded, but still alive. In Belgium any person would call an ambulance or even a MUG to try to save the guy. Not in Laos. The driver got back into his truck and drove it back and forwards over the guy, twice to make sure the poor man was certainly dead. (we would call this murder)

This seems to be common practice here. If the guy survives, the driver would have to pay for all the hospital and medical costs for as long as the guy suffers from the accident. If the guy is dead, he only has to pay a single fee once to the guy’s family and be done with it. Everything is about money, and money only, something people here don’t have. In this case the truck was owned by a road construction company, and that company’s insurance paid the family fee. The driver himself was jailed for 1 week and then released with no further consequence, and zero Kips to pay.

I sat there at loss wondering how to respond to her mail…. Earlier in the morning… before leaving my home I heard that once again a bomb has exploded in Peshawar killing two people and injuring scores…. Seems to be pretty common in my country these days.

I sat there wondering do I hold the moral right to express my disgust on the event when my only countrymen are committing crimes of similar magnitude or beyond….

One wonders what drives us? We humans have given all animals some kind of trait like fox is scheming, sharks are vicious, bear are dangerous…. Where infact the most dangerous and ruthless of all predators are humans. Animals instincts are matter of their survival. People know a fed shark will not attack but you cant be sure that a fully fed human wont kill.

We have single handedly annihilated species from the face of the earth and captured and played with many in circus arena!

What happened in Srebrenica when Serbs killed 8000 muslim men in front of the eyes of Dutch “PEACE KEEPERS” to Abu Gharib humans have a tendency of showing the most ruthless and cruel side of their existence and continue to live without remorse. Is there s kind of mutation in our genes that makes this really cruel cannabilistic and sadiest streak to prevail…. Are we all made up of it? Why is boxing or ring wrestling such a big money spinner… I think humans live of the pleasure of kill….

Were the Dutch peacekeepers innocent by standers or relishing the scent of a kill I cant judge but one thing is for sure no one can be naïve…

My post is not meant as an indictment of Dutch Peacekeepers but a simple indictment of human race.

Just sit back and imagine…… how many millions have we killed as part of our selfishness and hatred and lust…. How many… humans, animals and plants…. One wonders how can one not appreciate the beauty of life and how can you not be touched and changed for ever when you hold a new born…. A human, an animal or a bird…. The beauty of that person can melt any…. And today we selfishly destroy everything and we have very good and profitable reasons for it…

From extinction of rhinos to possible extinction of its own race and from rain forest to polar ice cap we have not left anything untouched….

So one thing we can be sure of… till this world is functioning we can be sure of cruelty and ruthlessness demonstrated by humans and suffering in all form and at all levels.

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