Monday, May 2, 2011

Osama is in the Bin! But we're still Laden with the Scourge!!

Huh… finally the dreaded man is put to rest! In spite of being in hiding for ten years, Bin Laden was most certainly would make it to the Top ten List of Most Recognized Faces (well, there are Top Ten lists nowadays for everything, I presumed there’d be one of that category too). Seemed, like the man had perfected the demand-supply curve, ‘cos he literally cut short himself out of supply and it only aided to him being Most Wanted of Most Wanteds!

Anyways, to say that the there is widespread rejoicing would be the understatement of the year, but the fact remains… Bin Laden – Dead or Alive… the world is no more a safer place today as it was yesterday. The chest-thumping-sloganeering jingoist might have had a field day today, but the sad reality of our times hasn’t changed an iota – there are enough people (and more so ideologies) that threaten the peace and tranquility of our civilization as it they were yesterday. The death of a frail, sick and probably dysfunctional Osama hardly does anything to change the contours of International Terror.

In the wake of the terror attacks on American soil on 9/11, the United States quite rightly launched a counter-offensive – yet sadly it was against the perpetrators alone! Not against the ideology of the perpetrators. What has been done by anyone in these ensuing years to promote the ideology of peace? Sadly, no one! Everyone is just as guilty and justifiably everyone will face similar consequences. The scourge of terrorism is just as alive today as it was yesterday and that is good enough to put cold water on our celebrations of the day. Might I add, celebrating the death of Osama only makes me feel like ancient lords who might hang the head of a slain-opponent like a trophy.

Many a great men before us left us saying “hate sin and not the sinner” and yet we haven’t quite taken it too seriously, have we? In the heat of the moment we take one for the other and are quiet adept at eliminating the sinner – and hoping the scourge is gone too! We’ve had almost ten years since 9/11 … and plenty of similar incidents since, and yet we relentlessly pursue the perpetrators while turning a blind eye to why such perpetrators still exist and why such an ideology is still rampant. We’ve seen all sorts of terror – religious, regional, economic… people taking up arms and disrupting peace. We have rightly right brought them to the book, yet missed the bus on tackling the reasons behind them.

No, I am no sympathizer, far from it! Yet I most certainly believe the role of our government is simply not act as an executioner of ‘an eye for an eye’ policy!

The root of this evil lies in man’s selfish quest – to fracture the world, countries and societies into bits and pieces. To demarcate things as mine & thine! To grab and steal! The powerful dealing with the powerless with contempt – disdain even!

There is still as much poverty, inequality, racism and division within each of us to think of a world without killing & terror. And sadly, rejoice as much we may over the death of a Bin Laden, the this scourge of terror will haunt us so long as we don’t eliminate those diseases from every corner of the world known to man.

The words of Shri. Rabindranath Tagore, ring in my heart and I believe it nothing more aptly sums up our failure in tackling terror while also providing a guiding path on where we ought to head

“Where the mind is without fear, and the heart is held high,

Where the world is not broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls,

Where the words came out from the depths of truth,

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habits,

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action -

Into that heaven of freedom,

My father, let my country awake.”

I’ll paraphrase the last line “My Father, let this world awake”

We need a world of equality, we need a world of mutual respect, we need a world of true freedom & awakening!!