We live in a fast paced world. Activity of every kind is widespread in all corners of the world- from the marketplace to revolutions, arts to education. There is not one second that goes by without some sort of activity in it. You and I are a part of this extremely busy world: a world so busy that it overlooks the injustices that occur right in front of our eyes.
The fact is that many of us tend to focus our attention on things that take place on the surface. We rarely, if not at all, look beyond, to the layer of activity taking place beneath the surface.
Natural disasters have become a recurrent phenomenon in the world today. We witness tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, floods and earthquakes; but we cannot actually see the origins or source of these disasters. It is unseen to the human eye but made known to the world by scientific analysis, graphs and experiments. Similarly, at a glance, we see commercial activity, political events, wars and protests, festivals and international events.
But this is only the surface: we haven’t quite noticed the tiny detail in this big picture. If we were to zoom in on this picture of activity, we find people in utter starvation; malnourished children who long for a big glass of milk and biscuits; we see the faces of helpless victims of slavery, human trafficking, child abuse, poverty and other means of exploitation.
Consider our own lives: We all live by a schedule. Some of us wake up early to get a head start and make it to work on time; others are on their way to school or university. When the clock strikes we head back home until a new day dawns and the routine begins once again. Our lives are like that of a song in repeat mode, playing over and over until someone presses the ‘stop’ or ‘pause’ button.
Why not do exactly that? Let’s pause and rewind our routine for a moment. While waiting for the bus or van or even driving to work we may have noticed a few incidents: a child in hunger, or an elderly lady who dropped all her belongings and was slowly gathering them up. But we decided to look away. In fact, some of us may have even wanted to help, but we figured we might be running late and assumed that someone else would take care of it. The truth is you may not have been the only one making that assumption and thus no one may have come to the rescue of that lady.
We often ignore the minute details of our lives. We see the surface but do not look beyond. Many of us shift responsibility on others to carry out acts we can do ourselves. It is common to look away from the injustices of society, to assume that someone or some organization would take care of it, to think that it has nothing to do with us; but as young people we have been taught in school more than often that rights and duties, liberties and responsibilities go hand in hand.
We cannot enjoy freedom in our community without responsibility towards it. People look to us for help: they long to enjoy the freedom that we experience despite our busy routines. Help someone today while it is within your power to do it- don’t ignore or pass it on. |
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