Sunday, August 26, 2012

Does Multiculturalism Breed Intolerance?


Do you enjoy different cultures or find them threatening? Either way, what do you do when you witness cruel actions borne of prejudice?

Here's a story that, in this day and age, sounds alarmingly familiar. There was this individual named Breivik. He was a Norwegian who decided Norway was for Norwegians and gunned down seventy-nine unarmed but happy young Norwegians to prove his point.

He was convinced he'd done the right thing. “If we can force the government to break down multiculturalism by killing ‘just’ 70 people that will preserve our values and prevent war in future.”

After leaving the families of these young individuals destroyed, in pain and in unimaginable grief, he stood vulgarly in court facing them and trying to seek his moment of justification, fame and glory.

Most of the victims were the youth wing of the Labour party. 

What a sick, miserable creature to believe he had the right and the justification to kill other human beings to get his message across. 

Here’s what the Huffington post had to say: When Breivik addressed the court, he lashed out at everything he finds wrong with the world, from the Labor Party’s immigration policies to non-ethnic Norwegians representing the country in the Eurovision Song Contest and the sexually liberated lifestyle of the characters ‘Carrie’ and ‘Samantha’ in ‘Sex and the City.’

“These are the ideals that are presented to our sisters and daughters today,” he said. “They should be censored and removed from our society.”

Ask whoever was left to grieve over the loss of family members at his hands and they would repulse and reject his calling them his “sisters and daughters” with all their hearts. He was their killer, and as one victim’s mum put it, she hoped she would never have to see his face again and that he would just disappear from Norwegian society into jail forever.

In my opinion the Breviks of this world are brave at hiding behind guns but weak in their capacity to imagine the grief they cause because of the attention they so desperately seek. If only he'd taken the trouble to read his history books he would have known the huge number of reasons for wars like resources, land, proximity to the sea and craze for power, to name a few. But he saw what he wanted to see - everyone paying him attention and secretly hailing him as a hero. 

Which brings me to what the gunman didn’t like — Multicultural Societies. 

How can we ignore the fact that there are too many Breviks in this world today? Racially prejudiced, homophobic individuals who despise anyone who is different? Some of them subscribe to the view that their culture is the only one to live by. Most of them might dislike the 'hateful' others but here’s the difference between them and the killer. 

On the whole, these folk, prejudiced though they might be, are peaceful and abhor violence.

In most countries today, we have hardcore Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, Tamilians, Parsis etc. They might be a handful but they exist. They feel theirs is the only culture that is truly gracious, the only religion that will give them a passage to heaven and theirs is the only language worth speaking. They might live side by side with the hateful others, send their children to the same schools and even work with them but only because they have to. If they do speak about these others, it is only to heap scorn on their ‘strange’ and different ways.

Most of the rest of us are quite happy to live side by side with people from other cultures. We have this easy going attitude of ‘live and let live’ and are comfortable with our differences. What’s more, we feel free to indulge our curiosity for, and enjoyment of, the huge variety of traditions and cultures we live side by side with. 

Here’s a strange phenomenon. We might be easy going about other cultures, but we are proud of our own. Imagine someone trying to criticise anything about our heritage, our khandaan, and see how quickly that puts up our defences. It is curious because, as William Pfaff says, this pride we have in our unique culture cannot be explained away by applying reason or logic. It just is, wherever in this world we may be.

Then why blame someone like the lame excuse for a man, the killer, for trying to preserve that “uniqueness”?

  • The main reason has to be respect for the right to life as enshrined in our constitution. 

Here are two more:

  • Sometimes our liking for individuals is irrespective of culture. When youngsters fall in love with someone from a different culture, ask them what they would give up easily — their desire to preserve their “uniqueness” or their friendship? Take the movie, “Bombay”. I know I wanted the two young lovers to be happy together irrespective of the fact that one was a Hindu and the other, a Muslim. 
  • For most of us, it isn’t someone’s desire to preserve their traditions or culture that is the bigger problem. It is the use of violence to preserve it that disturbs. It goes against our core humanity. To witness carnage and bloodshed sickens us. 


For some, denouncing violence doesn’t mean they are speaking out FOR the immigration of people who they perceive as different, into their country. That is a separate issue. It remains a problem in many countries today, including India. 

In India, we already are a multicultural society. We’ve had people of different cultures, religions (about eight?) and languages (say at least seventeen languages and 5 to 600 dialects?) living side by side for hundreds of years. Peaceful co-existence has always been a major issue. 

And yet, the majority, and the Indian constitution, have believed in peaceful co-existence, respect, humanity and a good dose of humour. Unfortunately, of late, many of our hardcore traditionalists have become loud and abrasive, often resorting to violence to uphold their values and traditions to the exclusion of all others. 

How do we, the secular minded Indians, the ones who don’t feel threatened by the presence of other cultures in our midst, address this ever increasing issue of violence?

We must denounce it. Not to do so is to condone it. To decide we won’t say anything, neither for, nor against, also condones it. 

To condone something that goes against our basic humanity, against our core values, will eat away at what makes us human. 

Let us try and understand why our traditionalists feel threatened and overwhelmed by other communities. Here’s what Bharati, a student of Gyan Shakti College, thinks is their mindset. 

They feel their culture is being swamped and overshadowed.

[To find out what else she thinks, read “Never Mind Yaar” — YA Fiction.] 

Granted, they feel threatened. Now the difficult part — how do we convince the ones who are suspicious or fearful of other races, but abhor violence, to prevent it? Do we give them a ‘peaceful’ alternative to express their racial prejudice? Heavens, no! 

I have no answers except, over time, as they become familiar with the strange ways of others, we hope the feeling might lessen. 

Denouncing violence, even if they feel that their cause is aligned with the violent, is crucial. Violence has come back to haunt and hurt us repeatedly. A productive and prosperous country is brought to its knees because of violence. Young gangs have mauled and mutilated each other and made themselves incapable of enjoying life and nature with healthy minds and bodies. Bringing this fact out into the open might help. An independent judiciary and police might help. Discussions on the end results of the use of violence throughout history might help. Understanding the after effects of violence might help. 

We, the timid and the peaceful, need all the help we can get. We need to gain the courage to speak out against violence. 

A scattered few denouncing violence aren’t as effective as a billion strong force.

We have the numbers. Let our message be heard loud and clear. 

#WeAbhorViolence

xxx 

Having said that, we cannot ignore the harsh realities in our (Indian) villages. Landlords exploit labour, the so-called ‘upper caste’ Hindus exploit Dalits — the ‘lower caste’ Hindus, and they have the capacity to band with the police and politicians to keep the minorities and lower castes subdued. Muslims are the target of a certain type of Hindu. It has become worse of late. Judicial enquiries are snuffed out on some pretext or the other. The landed gentry are a law unto themselves. 

And yet, there is hope because an ever growing group of people cannot bear this political-police nexus with the privileged who defy the Indian constitution and have become hardened criminals resorting to violence in order to retain those privileges. 

Some have always had the courage to speak out, but more and more have begun to join forces with them. They have realised that Elie Weisel, Nobel peace prize winner, spoke the truth when he said,






.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Natural Laws That Govern Human Growth


If there is one thing I can’t abide by, it is cunning. All politicians believe they ought to be just that. Or someone more cunning will be ready to usurp their place, position and privilege. They call it "being canny".
 
Earlier, while ordinary people were constrained by their inability to talk to others all over the world, politicians harped on the “preserve my culture” theme (divide and rule?). But suddenly, we are all connected. People from Brazil have access to what people in Maharashtra think. People in the UK know what really worries people in India. As a result, either some countries have tried to contain that connectivity or people have started looking at their politicians’ rhetoric with jaundiced eyes.

To my mind, this is great. It means the beginning of the end of the world order as we know it. (It could even be the beginning of the end of demarcations of countries although not quite yet!) It is back to the beginnings - we are one race. Our humanness and our humanity don’t change wherever we are born or whoever we are born to. Our culture, language or religion is hugely dependent on where we are born. Our traditions - how we do things, what we eat, what we wear, what we celebrate varies because of the fact that we are in a certain part of the world and born to certain parents - it is pure chance. (In India, because of centuries of association with others, we celebrate many different traditions from various cultures - we even have public holidays for many festivals celebrated in different cultures) And now, thanks to our being able to talk to just about anyone from the rest of the world, we realise first hand, how similar we are in spite of our cultures.

Politicians claim that they work for the good of the people and country. They don’t mention how much self interest and self preservation enters the picture. Except, in India it is blatant and to a degree, unsurpassed. All their energies are focused on how to extract something for themselves from everything. With so many politicians in power and in the opposition doing just that, with each of them extracting so much from the providers of goods and services for their own pockets, their “cut” is an expense passed on to the consumer – you and I. The common person pays through their nose for every service and for any goods. 

Of course, politicians aren't the only ones to blame. I’d like to think through an imaginary example with you: A wants to make something and the by-product is not good for the air we breathe. He goes to the person in power who says, “I’ll overlook that but, what’s in it for me?” There are three routes open to A. Can the project, give the bribe or ensure the by-product isn’t harmful to the environment. 

·        If A decides to give the bribe, these might be the possible outcomes.

o   He starts the factory and rakes in the profits.
o   He and millions like him might be making the air we breathe too polluted. According to the UN, the extent of pollution in India is far above the danger level already.
o   The bribe demanding politician might decide to increase his cut.
By now A might realise it might have been cheaper in the first place to take that one extra step to convert the bad by-product into something that’s good for the environment.
o   But, that would mean selling the product at a more expensive price than the competition who would probably have bribed the same politician to dispense licences for similar factories.

He might decide to take the politician and / or the competition to court for unfair practices. Yeah right. What checks and balances are there for politicians? If he doesn’t get his cut, the politician will simply refuse the licence to A, whether his product and by-products are environmentally friendly or not. A has no recourse to justice as politicians have their own people in our judiciary and the police. With the help of goons in their pay they’ve subdued the people. Their tentacles are everywhere.

A might decide to let the ordinary person know what’s happening but the ordinary person is too indifferent or apathetic. Besides he or she feels they aren’t such fools that they’ll fall for that line. Why should they buy from A, when B sells the same product cheaper?

Our entire mindset, from the politician to the business person to the ordinary person needs to change. But that is easier said than done. It is a very slow process. Take the other example of the various projects to uplift the poor. They sound quite wonderful on paper. Most of the cash that has been earmarked for these projects is usurped by people who are well off in collusion with local politicians. How do we ensure the poor, who are actually targeted, benefit from these projects? 
This curse of corruption has to be rooted out before it sucks India and ordinary Indians dry. To my mind, this scenario can change to a great degree if there are proper checks and balances on politicians. Only checks and balances will bring about rapid change. In the mean time and side by side, we may try changing the moral fibre of our people. 

The late Stephen Covey had this to say – Principles that govern human growth and happiness are natural laws that are woven into the fabric of every civilized society throughout history and comprise the roots of every family and institution that has endured and prospered. The degree to which people in a society recognise and live in harmony with these principles moves them toward either
  • survival and stability or
  • disintegration and destruction.
The principles he was talking about? Most humans know them instinctively. Some of them are truth, honesty, integrity, a sense of justice and moral courage. Wonder if any of our current batch of politicians have at least one of these qualities. But more than that, I wonder if we have the moral courage to vote for the ones who do, in 2014.

So many people have spoken about the many guises of corruption in India that I thought I’d put up a few links.

·        http://rajendrak-hottopic.blogspot.in/ This blogger has quoted Noam Chomsky who’s spoken about the media’s unethical behaviour and how news may not be true at all. He advises us to keep our eyes, ears and mind open.

·        Superb article on what is required to bring about change in our system and it isn’t superheroes. It is the common Indian citizen being non gullible and courageous. http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cursor/entry/anna-comes-down-to-earth.

·       A very recent article in the Economic Times titled “How Corruption in Coal Is Closely Linked to Political Funding” http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/energy/power/how-corruption-in-coal-is-closely-linked-to-political-funding/articleshow/15381252.cms?


  Why is there a shortage of railway tickets during our festive season? Read what the touts do. http://ibnlive.in.com/news/exposed-festive-season-shortage-of-railway-tickets/281066-3.html 



. .