When will we understand?

It's amazing how people who claim to be patriotic show so much contempt towards their own countrymen. How people who claim to be tolerant ignite at the slightest difference of opinion. I don't know whether to term this behavior as hypocritical or egotistical. To argue is one thing; to taunt or degrade each other is something else completely. Why do we waste our time doing so is something that I fail to understand. Why do we fail to respect each other the way they are? Why don't we accept the fact that we weren't sent on the surface of this planet to correct others? 


Funnily, while we work so hard to maintain this attitude, we also tell other people off for criticizing us. This bigotry has made us cynical, narrow-minded and snobby. All of these traits contribute largely to almost all the problems we face, whether in personal life or on a national level. Since we refuse to listen and consider the other's opinion, we are unable to reach any solution and thus we keep hitting dead ends every where. 


Even on a national level, this attitude is costing us a lot. Our lack of unity has led external factors to control what's ours and we cant stop them from doing so because we are unable to resolve our own differences. They provide us opportunities to fight and we snatch all of them like a bully snatches lunch from other kids. The time is ripe for us to decide: whether we want to move on or keep on stumbling in the dark as we push away anyone who brings light with them.


[The Settlement House] must be grounded in a philosophy whose foundation is on the solidarity of the human race, a philosophy which will not waver when the race happens to be represented by a drunken woman or an idiot boy. 

Revolutionary Protests

‘Protests against raised petrol prices.’

‘Strike against poor governance.’

‘Protest against Drone attacks. Go America go!’

‘Protest against KESC. Let’s burn some tires.’

All the above are common headlines these days. Reasons change but ‘protests’ and ‘strikes’ remain constant. What purpose have these protests and strikes served till now, I fail to understand. Our leaders, who usually lead these demonstrations, claim that theses protests will lead to revolution because ‘sola karor awam bahir roads pe nikle gi’ so it’s bound to have some effect. However except igniting the sparks of hatred, frustration and anger in the masses they are anything but revolutionary. All we get is news of burning tires and private property, gun shots, innocent people being killed and text messages which tell us either to get out of our houses and shout out on streets or to not get out at all.   

How long will all this continue though? How long will we keep compromising our work, education, lives and property? There has to be some way out. Don’t these leaders realize that they are actually playing with our future by forcing educational institutions to remain close? What difference will we be able to make in this country where all we see is raging emotions and tempers, where we know we can’t live without ‘cooperating’ with the political parties? We know that unless we have power enough to threaten someone’s life or destroy someone’s house or locality we can’t head anywhere. How can anyone expect the youth to be rational and calm when all they can see around them is violence and the fact that it is accepted?