Despite endless untiring songs about bringing equality for all humanity (for instance, One World One Song, Dionne Warwick), even with touching lyrics pleading to share and cherish our just this one planet (Lucas Miller), with philosophic imploring for the world not to be broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls (Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali), and our national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam spreading his wings to belong to the whole world, and not just his country of birth and society (Nazrul Rachonabali), WE (yes, I am talking about you and me and the buddy with whom you/I are going to share the next glass of lassi with separate or even the same straw) are as divided as poet Jasimuddin’s embroidered patterned quilt (Nokshi Kanthar Math, 1928), inclusive of the ephemeral stitches.
We talk big at political rallies. We write strongly. We even try to believe that we should believe. And yet we are fragmented in our families, in our society, in our own country, in the geographical region that we belong, and the less said about the world is not better.
It is not uncommon for just the one sibling to oppose the development proposal mooted by all others. Sometimes the reason is as illogical as his argument to have greater share than the other brothers because he gave time and lived on that property. If you can picture yourself in that frame then perhaps you are 75 percent Bangali, or if you know a family which fits the bill then you are a bona fide citizen of the country.
An association of apartment owners often cannot agree to a routine maintenance job or an appointment of a janitor simply because three out of thirty members with seven attending the meeting do not like the chal-chalon of the ‘elected’ general secretary. I have often queried of such people how difficult it must be for a prime minister to keep a country of crores together when we seemingly cannot manage peacefully the affairs of a local community. Almost simultaneously, I do indeed laud the acumen of Bangabandhu who united the nation, dare I say for the last time in 1971, even though there were cowardly anti-liberation elements lurking in the shadows.
I understand when some of you will raise your hands and mention the resounding victory in an international cricket match as a centre stage for national unity. But keep your ears open and even before the din of the celebrations die down, you will hear cynical comments that the opposition did not field its full strength. Le halua!
As far as regional harmony is concerned, across the world there is militarised (or in the least political) tension in endless number of borders that divide two neighbouring countries. This is an extension of such friction that exists between two landowners in any part of the country. We go to the extent of claiming a coconut tree (and not getting it) even at the cost of losing fraternity that would otherwise have given us both families endless hours of happiness. Who knows, maybe over a glass of coconut water?
While SAARC appears pleasurably a working cooperation when we receive on-arrival visa at say, Kathmandu, Colombo and Thimpu, and vice versa for visitors from those countries, the length that one has to go to obtain a tourist visa to visit India or Pakistan belies the very purpose of the eight South Asian countries building an association. For the sake of sustained regional relationship, the process of acquiring a visa should be made easier and people in the region should be made to feel welcome.
The continued, although I will admit abated (going by press reports), killing of Bangladeshi civilians by India’s Border Security Force (BSF) for alleged border trespassing, remains a stinker in the historical and continual best of neighbourly relations existing between our two countries. The killing of 15-year old Felani Khatun by BSF 2011 epitomises both the helplessness of the victims and the brutality at the border.
The world is now recognised and addressed as patches of Muslims and Hindus, Christians and Jews, Sunnis and Shias, Catholics and Protestants, upper caste and lower, blacks and whites, rich and poor, natives and refugees, literate and unlearned. . . But the songs of solidarity, fellowship, and Ummah are becoming louder by the day; we reek of hypocrisy.
We most often talk of religious tolerance, which is understandable. But, the real need is for human forbearance, that is, compassion for fellow beings.
Some of us behave better with animals because they are not deceitful, and will not take undue advantage, or stab you in the back, or dump you when you become poor, or tell tales about you to win over your enemies, or betray you one fine morning… okay, okay, we all have reasons to love Pluto and Kitty, but let us give human beings around us some care and consideration. Hey, how about we all start behaving more like animals? Woof!
The writer is a practising Architect at Basha Bari Ltd., a Commonwealth Scholar and Fellow in the UK, a Baden-Powell Fellow Scout leader and a Major Donor Rotarian.
Source: The Daily Star
