Good fences make good neighbors

Robert Frost said it rightly 101 years ago. Truly good fences make good, responsible neighbors who work together to ensure safety and peace for the entire neighborhood.

This is most in violation in today's world and in recent times. If we start from the beginning of it all: Saddam Hossain in Iraq was a despot and a tyrant. He murdered many people unjustly and finally invaded Kuwait and declared it a part of his own territory. He was a mischief and he didn't uphold the sanctity of the fence as a good neighbor.

But the US didn't do that as well, for that matter. Senior Bush ultimately invaded Iraq, for WMD or whatever, in an effort to redress a wrong with yet another.  

The first violator was Iraq, and that was followed by the US and its 'allies'. But the latter didn't stop there. Soon we saw the fall and devastation in Libya, Afghanistan and finally Syria. Saudi Arabia decided to join the party of 'invasion frenzy' as well, by cobbling up an 'Arab coalition' and starting to bomb Yemen.

Had all the parties maintained and upheld Frost's advisory of keeping to their own fences, none of these would've happened today. Now we have a distraught Middle East, and a perilous Europe, with war cries coming from all around.

That indicates the world must've been in the wrong set of hands. It needs a complete overhauling now.   

Helping others

It happened with me so many times.

It has been happening to me since, I don't know when. Every time it happens, I am heart broken. They say, that a friend in need is a friend indeed. My attitude, though, is not quite influenced by this adage; as I must admit I have found helping others to be one of the most pleasurable things in life. I like to help others, am almost obsessed with it and often do it if it is not much of an inconvenience.

That is alright. But the problem is, that when people notice that you are a helping kind, they take you for granted and use and exploit you. They find out that you are a peculiar case of one wanting to help others, and ask for it whenever they need it. I'm kind of tired of appearing to be a 'fool' in their eyes for this behavior.

And I must admit, receiving some reciprocal help is not entirely undesirable to me. I do expect some help from the other end if I can't help it myself. And my poor heart is, as I said previously, broken when I don't get it.

I sit down and think as to why I should be denied something I so generously give to others? Then I realize that the problem may well lie with me. Because I never made a deal, I volunteered to help. I noticed that whenever a person helps another, he conveys through gestures and tacit hints that he would be expecting the same. But I never did that to anyone. In fact, I try to appear as if my helping is no matter at all, lest the other person feels bad in his heart thinking he might be bothering me.

I always try to appear as if my help is no big deal, and that they couldn't done it themselves had they wished. I didn't want the other person to feel uneasy.

But what I get in return is betrayal. Whenever I expect a little help from my beneficiaries, they turn me down on the floor.

And I am saddned. Sometimes I resolve not to help them or any other person in future, and that that was the last case of charitable service.

But I know a while later that it would be impossible for me to do that. I would still be helping others, for the sake of humanity and for the pleasure it brings me. I feel this is the highest religion an man can follow.

And I would bear the denials and ingratitudes, more often, smilingly.

Motivation to live.

Question: Think about having an abundance of money. Describe what you would do with it.



Answer: 

What if I had an unlimited amount of money at my disposal? Let me make a list of the changes I'd bring to my life:

1. I would buy a very big summer house in Bangladesh, somewhere in my hometown Narshingdi. It would have all the wealth of nature infused with cutting-edge modern amenities. I would have horses, cows, goats at my stables and have armed men to secretly guard me and my family. I would have cars and private jets and copters.

2. I would go for a world tour. I would start with Egypt's Pyramids, then to Turkey's Hegia Sophia, followed by Paris, London, Germany, Greece, Spain, Africa, India and Easter Island. I would stay in nice hotels, taste the best food available and roam about extensively.

3. I would buy myself an astounding number of books, with classics and books on Bangla. My library would have early to latest publications on subjects I'm interested in.

4. I would have one of the best sound systems in my house, with original tracks to play.

5. I would drive some cars and eat the best chocolates as well.

That's about it. That's the limit of my aspirations. I don't want any more.

Whatever you do, you only sponsor

How many times have you thoughtlessly looked at the TV screen where our PM is articulating painstakingly-imagined accusations and schemes of plots against the opposition leader? Or, encountered some dramas on screen on any of the private channels where girls more aggressively try to befriend and enter into love affairs with boys, giving you an impression that the producer might have a propaganda behind the entire design of the theatrical?

All I'm saying is that whatever you do, you only sponsor. If you don't deliberately and determinedly part with things you don't absolutely approve of, you are sponsoring it, unintentionally. That's why I have stopped looking at the TV screen even if it's on before my very eyes, and have learned to work despite the obvious sound of jingles of very uncomfortable commercials. For I have figured out, the moment I pay attention, I give my approval to it; and in return, it takes time off my life.

There are some more things that I have recently stopped sponsoring. For example:

1. Looking at people (coworkers, high-ups, local acquaintances) for whom I don't have a personal respect due to their not being up to par. I simply have started refusing to condescend.

2. Avoiding people who I know only look for their personal advantages, and don't care a fig for others. They are like traders; you talk to them thinking you are socializing, but you waste time, for they are only after using you in the most unpredictable way!

3. Watching anything on TV or in my computer which is not related to my work and my cause. Science fictions, fantasies, high-pitch unreal action dramas - these don't help me. They don't entertain me as well. They don't contribute to the materialization of my work and goal.

Instead, I have started to adhere to the following:

1. Pray. I have decided to become deeply and solidly religious. Plus, it also helps me stay away from vices and makes me a better, compassionate and openhearted individual.

2. Concentrate on my work and on things that would bring me and the people I care for, benefits. Reading a book and carrying a book always in my hand and reading even one sentence, or one word - is immensely and unfathomably more advantageous and rewarding than talking to people who simply suck. No wonder, I remember the saying: 'Life is too short to spend even a second with people that suck.'

3. Answer and give attention to my daily biological necessities in full, id est, sleeping adequately (if not more adequately), eating good food, gearing up and exercising to have good, highly rewarding sex, spending time with wife by taking her out or just lying in bed close together thinking of nothing particular, watching news channels on TV or just browsing channels for some time, doing regular stuff on the Internet etc.

I believe if you want to be a good human being and want to enjoy your life fully, you should immediately STOP sponsoring wrong people and things and START working for things that matter to you and your cause.

I also fear that perhaps humans are a little frivolous by nature, and they unintentionally like to while away their time (you find it present in almost all the animals as well - no wonder man is a social animal!). In order to get rid of this frivolity, we need to consciously make choices and be focus on our goals.

I wish you my kind of life, and please wish me good luck in pursuance of the standards and resolutions that I've decided for myself.

Thanks.

Venez m'aider - a layman's view

The title in French means 'come help me'. This is the phrase from where the verbal code for distress "Mayday" is coined. I feel the hapless workers in Bangladesh are giving us the same signal.

It is estimated that the country currently has 2.5 crore unemployed people with 1.5 crore of them educated. They need work to maintain their family and find a place in the society. But what about the majority of others who are already employed from non-skilled to high-skilled jobs?

Let's start from the grass-root. People working in construction firms, hotels, brick-fields, shops and bazars, as day-laborers. They are unskilled, uneducated people, and to keep their families afloat, they work from dawn to dusk to try to earn their bread. They most often just subsist, dragging their lives through malnutrition, weakness, sickness and rapid deterioration of health conditions. They are human beings taking part in an almost impossible fight every morning. They don't have much to dream about; in fact, they don't dream at all. They are just trying to 'continue' their existence, and that urge is also due  to man's primal instinct for survival.

Poets write poems on them, reporters often quiz them to cover their allotted pages, and some human rights organizations issue statements trying to attract our attention to the distressed condition of these people around us. We sympathize with them, and then go by our own ways.

The state is involved in another farce at this level, with these poor souls and the likes. Often these people are sent abroad to work, and most often, their conditions over there are beyond description. Take, for example, the case of Saudi Arabia. Bangladeshis in millions work there and the flow has never stopped completely. Recently, the Saudi government has initiated another step to recruit more workers of different skills for them.

Is there a statistics to show their standing in this foreign land? Have there been investigations and reports as to how these people are being treated there? And what about various allegations that had sprung up from time to time? Have they been verified?

If an account is started as to how they lead their lives in the face of adversity and suppression, then it would surely be a horrid one. But we are sending these helpless people there, and to some other parts of the world - and they are oppressed, inhumanely treated, overworked, underpaid, harassed in different forms and then kicked back home without any benefits.

Semi-skilled workers have a mentionable salary, but they still have their own, unique problems. They cannot decrease their living standards to go with the scanty salary they receive, neither can they live up to the standard that their job designation requires. Most often, either these people become corrupt or they lead a life full of grief and dissatisfaction.

But what about the educated, skilled and employed ones? Those who are in the public sector are well protected, even when they are not corrupt. But the situations in the private sector are the same story. Overwork, underpay, oppression, harassment, insecurity and very long work-hours. It is slavery in a different garment.

In total, the conditions of workforce of our country are very bad and further deteriorating every day. It will be interesting to monitor how much research in the social studies department is done regarding the issues and the scenario discussed here.

But that much can be safely said, that Labor day is much more than ensuring a holiday for those unfortunate laborers in different positions. It is also not about seminars and political talks and promises. It would best be observed if proper situation is realized and appropriate plan is chalked out to improve the conditions of workers and employees.

Otherwise, labors of Bangladesh will unite one day, and that brute, unpolished force may very well bring about another Bangladesh chapter of French revolution. 

Fukushima: What message it 'emanates' for us.

Today, more and more people want to live in cities. They don't want the dull, languid, laid-back life in the rural areas. Instead, they want more charm and excitement of the city life where you have a well-lighted town with people driving their fashionable cars and fast-food shops spilling out with customers. You have discos, bars, theaters, concerts and shopping malls on busy roads. People dressed well and wearing a variety of perfumes all go about, meet and look at each other, and feel the warmth of hearts. Who would want to take dinner after sunset and go to bed nowadays? After all, who don't want fun and excitement in life?

That's where the problem starts. Our life is pitched up against the life of the planet we live in. To be more clear, just as we have our biological clock in-built in our body that tells us when to take food or go to sleep, so have we a particular schedule for our planet earth. If we observe, we see the sun rising early at around 6 and setting after 12 hours at around 6 in the afternoon. But we get up a couple of hours late and keep awake up to 1 or 2 in the morning, burning our midnight oil and all the other resources that we need in order to keep us going, like electricity, gas etc.

We need to do more in today's world. We need to write, publish and read more, we need to use our laptop more and more, we need our food to be delicious even more. We are researching into new fields of knowledge and studies every day. People are getting more and more knowledgeable every day now, with the contribution of tools like the internet and tv. We have professors lecturing on different topics of interest at the universities and researchers carrying out new and exciting projects in the labs.

We do these all to BETTER our lives. It's true today than ever before, that we need more electricity now, to do MORE in order to produce MORE, to consume MORE. We are not morons but are trapped in this cycle of 'doing more'. And in order to 'do' more, we are taxing our world resources.

We have set up atomic power plants, and look what is happening in Fukushima. The situation is completely out of our control.

If we chart down the pattern of natural disasters, we see there has never been a very quiet phase. We need to admit that this planet of ours has its own way of going about. There will always be some natural disasters in some expected or unexpected forms, in one particular area or in another. We don't need to create problems for ourselves, the planet that we inhabit will take care of it periodically for us. What we ought to do, in order to ensure mutual coexistence, is a synchronized way of living, a kind of livelihood that draws on the facilities of the planet, and at the same time, helps to replenish the sources and strengths of nature in order to restore it to its full strength.

Building nuclear reactors are atomic power stations are not the right way to bring our society forward for any conceivably good reason. These establishments are blithe spots on the body of our planet earth and our planet therefore has every right to retaliate back in response to such heinous acts. Fukushima today sends us this exact message.  Anything can go terribly wrong anytime.

So we should be unitedly concerned in living harmoniously with nature. We should use the daily routine of the planet to our advantage and start and finish our day according to the rising and setting of the lamp of the planet, e.g. the sun. We should limit our wanton and excess desires of trying to live a very exciting life, simply because it exhausts more resources and we  personally can't account for such uses of the same.

We can't just destroy our planet, we don't have the right to do so. We must find ways to have an eco-friendly life steeped in high values and restraints. We can't just be 'fun-loving' vultures, feeding on the corpses of our desires.