Right to do one's duty or one's duty to do right...?

Of late, one hears a lot about how the focus is shifting from a strict emphasis on citizen's rights to a middle path approach looking at both rights as also the responsibilities of citizens. And very rightly so. I mean, it is ridiculous for a populace to keep harping on what is due to them, and never ponder over what they are due to do. JFK perhaps put it in the most succinct manner possible: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

The rights of a people, those granted by their government as also those inherent to them by virtue of their being citizens of a nation, are inalienable and irrevocable. Any assault on them, any attempt to reduce them, or to reduce their efficacy in the face of tyranny, would be tantamount to assaulting the very foundations of society.

And yet they are not infinite, because even they are not infallible. And that is where the duties and responsibilities of the citizenry play an important role. The citizenry is obligated to ensure that it uses the rights it enjoys in a responsible manner, befitting a civilized society. Just because these rights are near sacrosanct doesn't imply that these rights can be used to justify any deed sine prejudicio. The people are bound by their affiliation to a State to maintain due respect for its laws, so long as they are just and fair. The right to liberty is not a license for anarchism.

The decision of the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) to resort to the means of community service to penalize individuals breaking cleanliness rules is a welcome sign. I mean, this would make a man more likely to follow the rule than merely paying a fine. True, a fine is also rather heavy for the offender, but the embarrassment in this case more than ever ensures that the chap will never repeat the offence again. Moreover, this step uses the local populace to monitor the situation, an extension of the Area Local Management (ALM) scheme, which in turn is a step forward in empowering the citizenry. Maybe, down the lane, we could see community service becoming an important means of punishing petty offenders.

It remains to be seen how successful the scheme will ultimately turn out to be, given that we generally have a problem with implementation. But, I feel that this is a step in the right direction, a direction that we should have taken a long time back, but nonetheless, better late than never.

Ode to Minerva...

Today is International Women's Day. And it is indeed a moment to celebrate a little. I mean, society has come a long way since its rigid paternalism which denied women the right to earn their own living, to support themselves, and to live their lives in a manner of their liking. Agreed, there are still areas where a lot of improvement, a lot of progress is desirable, but the journey has begun, and I feel that it is acquiring a pace that does not allow for any reversal of direction.

Empowerment is a mild term for a process which is so revolutionary, so liberating in its stride. Merely venerating female divinities does not make a society sensitive to female aspirations. Making women capable of taking their own decisions, of being independent of the pressures of their male relations and other male components of society, is an important step towards empowering the entire society wherein these women play just as important a role as the men.

The adage that an educated lady means an educated family cannot ever be denied; it is a given fact that someone who is literate will always be able to appreciate the subtle benefits that education confers upon an individual in the daily routine of life, and will therefore be more amenable to encouraging others within his/her circle of contacts to acquire some basic level of education, so as to improve their manner of eking their living.

But simply educating them will not suffice, as women need to be able to find opportunities wherein they can apply the knowledge that they have acquired. I am not so much in favour of the idea of reservations based on gender, as I feel they would be counter-productive, and may even alienate the genders from each other, when we should be looking at how the divide can be bridged in a most amicable manner. If an institutionalized bias does exist, then it is imperative that the State provide women with a weapon formidable enough to expose the deviants, and adequately penalize them. Anti-discrimination laws would therefore be more practical, although it must be understood that they need to be better in their manner of implementation than the current anti-dowry laws, which confer unreasonable powers on women, ignoring the fact that there are women, wont to be the black sheep amongst the herd, who would misuse the statute.

One may say that crime per se is not specifically directed against any particular gender, and yet I am not so stupid as to deny the fact that anti-woman crimes are perhaps a truth that society has to live with. Rape, abuse, domestic violence et al are crimes against women; abuse does transcend genders, but in the most general case, women suffer the most from it. And in my view, crimes of this nature are not just crimes against the individual concerned; rather they are crimes against the entire society of which the individual is a part. We need to strengthen our laws to deal with these reprehensible offences, so much as to deter further delinquents from ever even thinking about committing them. Women need to be assured that if they have been genuinely troubled, then the law shall be at its worst against their harassers.

Again, we could investigate the feasibility of how the State can encourage and support entrepreneurial initiatives by women, especially when such initiatives aim at providing a means of employing women and making them self-sufficient. Initiatives like SEWA (Self-Employed Women's Association) and the Grameen Bank need to be replicated across the country. In the end, it is well established that irrespective of all other factors, financial independence or at least financial autonomy can sufficiently empower women to be able to fend for themselves in a most effective manner.

This has been a long blog, and I am tired now. But the point is this: sure, celebrate this day, but also ponder on what all must be achieved here on. This is not the end of the journey, just one milestone amongst millions to come. Once Minerva and Athena were venerated as goddesses controlling major portfolios like War and the Intellect. I pray that today's Minervas also achieve the same glories.

Susan B. Anthony once said, and I quote, "The day will come when men will recognize woman as his peer, not only at the fireside, but in councils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will there be the perfect comradeship, the ideal union between the sexes that shall result in the highest development of the race." Amen to that...

Image Courtesy: The Free Dictionary

Where be reason....?

It is often the habit of governments to accuse their opponents or those who criticize them, or simply are disagreeable, of partaking in crimes against the nation. How much the charge relates to the truth is anyone's guess, but the fact remains that in many parts of the world, including so-called democratic and civilized nations, this practice of silencing voices by gagging them goes on unchecked and unchallenged.

A Turkish court yesterday has sentenced a senior official of an opposition party to six months of imprisonment and that too because he used the title of 'Mr.' to address a certain Kurdish rebel leader whom the Turkish government has accused and convicted of treason against the Turkish nation. The same official was also imprisoned previously for distributing his party material in the Kurdish language, an act frowned upon by the ruling Turkish elite.

Now, I am convinced that the world is coming to an end. I mean, when a man is sentenced to be imprisoned for appending a title, which would seem so very commonplace, to another man, there seems to be no reason left at all. Purportedly, the usage of the said title insinuates a sense of respect or camaraderie for the 'traitor'. Balderdash! It is a part of polite speech, and politeness has nothing to do with respect; you can be disrespectful and yet be polite.

So is this really about using the 'wrong' part of speech? I don't think so. Turkey has a dark history, and has tried to deny its Kurdish citizens the right to a civilized existence, the right to self-determination. Their culture, their language, their customs are being denigrated and condemned, and all this because the Turkish government wants to instil a sense of unity in the people of Turkey (mind you, not just the Turkish people, but also the Kurdish populace in Turkey) by fostering a Turkish culture. A Kurdish culture would seem to compete for the attentions of the Kurds when they should ideally be focusing on imbibing the Turkish spirit.

And in this lies the dilemma. On one hand, one cannot deny Turkey and its government the right to ensure that its people remain united. And yet, one cannot simply stand by while it attempts to suppress the right of a people, notwithstanding whether they constitute a minority or not, to identify themselves by a culture that has been theirs for millenniums.

It remains to be seen whether conscientious governments, which cherish, or at least claim to cherish, liberty and freedom, will intervene. Till then, it will remain a long winter of discontent in the Turkish peninsula.

Link to the article.

Escape from reality....?

There comes a time when one begins to doubt whether one’s fellow beings, one’s species is deserving of the appellation of ‘civilized’ in contrast with wild beings in the forests and the seas. A time when one’s empathy for one’s compatriots, for one’s comrades, is shaken because they somehow seem unworthy of such compassion, of such generosity.

The news that nearly 300 individuals, including students and IT professionals, were apprehended while indulging in a rave party, is shocking, to say the least. The word ‘rave’, if one was to check the dictionary, means to speak in a loud or angry way suggestive of lack of rationality or loss of self-control. And this rings true in the behaviour that these people were indulging in during this debauchery of theirs, what with the quanta of drugs that were reportedly consumed, and the amount awaiting consumption. And all this in such clandestine manner, so cloak-and-dagger, as if the perpetrators wished to acknowledge that they are seeking to partake of forbidden fruits, that they are guilty of a heinous crime.

And an occasion too to resort to such depravity! A day when the entire nation celebrates the victory of good over evil, of noble intentions over base instincts. What a way to celebrate, I say?

To resort to the usage of drugs as a source of recreation is a sign of a deranged mind, incapable of reason, which would accept walking down a path of sure death as a means of entertaining oneself. The attitude of ‘one has but one life; one may as well live it well’ often gets misquoted here. I mean, how can being in an intoxicated state, in a state of mental inebriation, mean living a pleasurable life? I am no moralist; on the contrary, I accept the right of an individual to do what pleases him, but surely, we, as members of a responsible civil society, bear the duty of preventing an individual from indulging in acts that would appear to be suicidal. Just because a person possesses the right to liberty doesn’t preempt or prevent society from stopping the person concerned from committing acts which would in the long run lead to his own ruin. (Disclaimer: I am using the masculine pronoun only for convenience. I do not wish to state that women are any less prone to such acts.)

Those who would defend their participation in this act by pointing fingers at their peers are even bigger fools than their peers. I mean, resorting to drug usage just because of peer pressure would mean that you are amenable to cutting your wrists merely because your peers also seem to love doing it. Don’t you have brains of your own?

Drugs are perhaps the worst that an individual can resort to for merely escaping the stress and tensions of his daily routine. There are surely much better ways in which one can escape from the troubles of reality for a while, ways which would enrich your life to a greater extent, ways which wouldn't culminate in your ending up dead. You would ask me then, are not cigarettes and alcohol also equally harmful? True and I wouldn’t want to be seen as supporting them. But in the liturgy of damnable substances, drugs are the most condemnable.

I am not a fatalist, nor a pessimist. But what I see saddens me. That people should so gamble away their future for the sake of a few moments of ecstasy (and what a rotten ecstasy at that too) is distressing. That the efforts of one’s forebears in raising us in a manner befitting a civilized species are so nullified by our resorting to such animal instincts is a shame.

And yet, we cannot abandon them, can we? We need to assist them in controlling their urges, to find means to relieve their pains which are less demonic. We need to make them realize that their lives are too precious to be whittled away in a puff of smoke, or in a pinprick of a needle. Escape from reality, but let us not escape from reason, shall we?

Miracles...

In this world of science, of rationalism, and of cold mathematical conclusions, miracles have no place, no raison de etre, because frankly no one finds them worthy of attention, of belief. And yet that they should persist in happening, that they should so mock the determination of Man to ignore their presence, to become more practical rather then believe in figments of imagination, to believe in what can be explained intelligibly rather than try to associate events with some far-away divinity, is a testament to their tenacity, to their propensity to persevere in their zeal to be a part of our lives.

Medical practitioners and scientists oft say that miracles rob them of most of their glory. People thank God and His angels with more emotion than the hapless doctor who might have slaved over the patient for nearly 6 hours in a sweaty operation hall. Scientists work like beasts of burden in dark, smelly laboratories for weeks, forgetting that a world exists beyond the walls of the edifice, and when they come up with some great invention or discovery, the adjective most likely to be associated with it would be "miraculous".

And yet, there is somewhere in our hearts an emotion that even when we feel and somehow come to believe that a particular task is unachievable, it invariably is achieved successfully. Miracles aren't just acts of divinity; they are the small things that make our existence worthwhile. So when someone just averts an accident because a friend called out to him, that is a miracle. The smile of a baby, gurgling away to glory, with its beautiful eyes watching you, is a miracle.

Motherhood is a miracle, the very act exemplified in those nine months when life is created within another life, the twain joined together for life in a bond unbreakable even by God. And to see a baby walk, to clutch its tiny fingers, to hold it in your arms, and watch it go to sleep, slowly and sure in the fact that it is safe in your arms, is a miracle.

I can imagine how Millie McDonaugh's parents must feel now. Millie was born after a 22-week pregnancy, that is around 4 months premature. Her doctor gave her a 1 pc chance of recovery, and one doesn't have to be a PhD. in mathematics and statistics to know that it's a chance as slim as nothing at all. But Millie survived; she fought the odds, and now is much better. And that is a miracle, if not anything else.

Baby beats 100 to 1 survival odds

Epigram for Wall Street - Edgar Allen Poe

I'll tell you a plan for gaining wealth,
Better than banking, trade or leases —
Take a bank note and fold it up,
And then you will find your money in creases!
This wonderful plan, without danger or loss,
Keeps your cash in your hands, where nothing can trouble it;
And every time that you fold it across,
'Tis as plain as the light of the day that you double it!

Reference: Wikisource