A
massive earthquake struck my nation in April 2015, there was chaos everywhere.
Thousands of people died and twice as many were injured. Luckily, I was safe,
although I felt a kind of trauma. I started thinking about the near future of
my family, my society and my nation. Of course, my frightened mind imagined it
very dark.
A
huge catastrophe in a poor developing country was a great curse. We were all in
a playground of a nearby school. Shortly after the shake, I could hear the
sounds of helicopters and airplanes in the sky, which must have been witnessing
the massive destructions. Cultural heritage and old monuments fell in ruins to
the ground. The buildings of my college, which had produced a generation of engineers,
were of no use anymore. The phone network was down. I turned the radio on and
almost all of the stations were off. Fortunately, I found a working one - a
scared, confused voice was live and she was explaining what she experienced
during the earthquake. Hours passed, but it was still the same and we had no
idea what was happening and what we should do. At the same time, my eyes had
been flabbergasted by the increasing number of flights in the sky, and there
were helicopters everywhere. At first, I thought it to be of our National Army,
but the increasing numbers were too much for our army to afford. I carefully
looked at one and found that was a different model than those of our army had,
and I could see the flag and logo painted on it, clearly, it was from our
neighboring country, India.
"The World
is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my
religion."
Thomas Paine
We
were warned not to go back to our houses as there were jolting aftershocks and
we had cracks in our houses. I was interacting with local people, most of whom
were half-alive, advising them not to be afraid. However, we couldn’t stop
wandering around observing the massive destruction. We went through main roads
observing the people crying and cursing the mother earth for their dead family
members and destroyed houses. We were near the international airport and could
see rescue teams coming out of the main entrance. Large numbers of foreign military disaster response
teams and aid volunteers were coming to Nepal to help us overcome our trauma.
They started with the capital city and soon reached the remote corners. They
helped the people get out of the wreckage and bandaged their wounds. My heart
swelled with pride as I joined them to heal my country and the country people.
After the earthquake, many nations around the globe funded the National
Disaster Relief Fund and there were volunteers and professionals from around
the globe, helping us with the reconstructions. Everything made me realize that
I was not just a citizen of my nation, but a member of our globe. And, I am not
just a matter of concern to my society, but also significant to another human
at any corner of the world. Also, I realized that there was something called
humanity before me, my family, community and nation.
Mother
Earth has been inhabited by the human society through the centuries, from the
period of evolution of humans as homo sapiens, descending from monkeys
and chimpanzees, to the brilliant-minded creatures that could dream of
interstellar travels; roaming around the universe, playing with time, the
entire human civilization has been through the numbers of ups and downs. And it
has been clear that all human progresses had been possible only under the shade
of unity. When humans unite, something new evolves.
I argue that the increasing rate of
development in science and technology in this modern world is due to the
increasing number of participants. When more participants are involved, numbers
of logics and ideas are imposed which can be summarized to a meaningful
conclusion. It would not have been possible to launch the International Space
Station without the participation of different nations in the project, or even
the burning issue: the discovery of gravitational waves is the clear result of
global participation. Modern technology has made it possible to shorten the
distance between any places on Earth. We can explore the Earth at high speeds
in a very short period of time. News and ideas spread even faster at around the
speed of light. So, everyone in this world is interconnected virtually with
everyone's mind. Therefore, we don't think for sole purpose; if we innovate
something that is going to be a new listing in the Hall of Fame of the
discovery of human civilization and would be used by the needy human at any
part of the Earth at any time in the future. On the other hand, groupism instead
of going global leads to war and violence. Massive genocides in the history,
world wars and ongoing terrorism are all the results of factionalism.
I
love diversity. And that is the reason behind my love towards nature. I love
the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, oceans, different land forms; highs and
lows. I have also been extremely astonished by the diversity in human communities
since my childhood as I grew up in the remote southern plains of my country
which habitat numbers of diverse communities. Dozens of languages are spoken
over here and every community has its own culture, own beliefs, different
customs, languages and way of living. Due to very low literacy rates, people
are very traditional and only a few of them had been to school. I don't think
some of them can even probably imagine how big our earth is. When I return back
to my village sometimes I cycle to neighboring villages just to meet these
amazing people. Since I can't communicate properly in their language, I have to
rely on broken sentences and symbols. Every time I meet these people, I learn
something new. They have their own ways, the way different from mine. Their
houses are different, they eat different foods than me and they dress up
differently. But when I come to their vision towards community, they have the
same feelings as I do for my people: they love their people and believe in
living in a group. Not only humans, but most of the creatures on this planet,
from ants to elephants believe living in a community or at least a family
however is its size. Above them all, the human society has been the most
successful and I think effective communication is the main reason behind this.
Humans were able to develop languages and use them properly among groups, which
led the humanity to this extent.
“Globalization
means we have to re-examine some of our ideas, and look at ideas from other
countries, from other cultures, and open ourselves to them. And that's not
comfortable for the average person. “
Herbie Hancock
This
particular time in the history of humanity is very important. We are in the
state of transforming the huge world to a small territory, often termed as
‘global village’. This period is going to be marked as the most fruitful time
of human civilization. We are already experiencing the change and I feel it
very beautiful to imagine the near future- the big world with hundreds of
cultures shrunken to a small region; just like a tasty porridge in a bowl with
numbers of ingredients. And, yes I am sure that the result is going to be even
magnificently beneficial. But, it should never be forgotten to preserve such
beauty as time passes. It is really important to keep the world diverse and
beautiful as it is today. The intercultural interactions shouldn't mess up the
diversity. None of us should be hampered. We are not just transforming alone,
but we are also taking our cultures to the new era. Our languages, history and
identity, all should also be taken with us in this journey of transformation.
Each
community has a unique culture, which remains as the identity of their own. The
history of a community is embedded within the cultures. When a culture gets
vanished, many things go missing- language, custom, traditions, festivals,
beautiful stories and a page of human history. We should be living under a
single world with our own culture where the boundary of languages, traditions,
or other bases should never divide any of us and we should be defined just as a
human and judged by our skills, creativity and vision. And, most importantly- discrimination
on the basis of gender, race, economic standard, cast, creed or whatever
shouldn’t exist. Of course, the transformed world also deserves to be diverse
and more beautiful.
The
rate of transformation is accelerating; we have experienced a lot of changes
than our parents did and the next generation will see even more. The people of
our grandfather’s time travelled from country to country and it took years for
them, but now it has been possible to travel the whole world within a couple of
days. Who knows, we could be travelling to Mars soon. There was post mail and
that has been outdated and replaced by e-mails. There have been a lot of
changes just within the last century. The improved media have made it possible
for one to connect to another person living anywhere else. We share our
culture, vision and ways of living.
“One language
sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.”
Frank Smith
The
cultural sharing and understanding fascinates me very much; you get to know the
life of another individual and learn many new things. A language can be a
hurdle. So, learning every new one would open the gate to an adventure to
explore a distinct culture. When you know the code of communication, you can
decode the barriers and crack the way to enjoy the diversity. The more
interaction you do with foreign people and their culture, the more companionship
you feel. And, finally you become a member of that society and that doesn’t
remain foreign to you anymore. You just don’t describe yourself by your
hometown. If you are multilingual, you are no less than a bridge between
communities; you can exchange cultures, ideas and innovations. You can
experience the diversity; feel the differences and the joy of being part of a
diverse human society. Diversity is the real beauty of the universe.
“Culture makes
people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better
in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers.
But first they have to understand that their neighbor is, in the end, just
like them, with the same problems, the same questions.”
Paulo Coelho
When
our mind is set to feel not just as a citizen of a nation, but a member of the
globe and we have the ability to interact with diverse communities, a brilliant
thing happens: our way of thinking gets promoted to the next level. We feel
pain for every cry across the planet. We set ourselves determined to fill the
stomach of every living being. We feel the need of protection of our earth and
worry about climate change. We care for each and every person who begs on the
streets. We think to gift the children, with tons of books and a school, who
are far away from education. We would dream of a world free of guns and wars
where we could enjoy the harmony and brotherhood between diversities. And, when
we all are together, we can decrease chances of impossibilities. We can find a
cure for cancer. We can fight against dangerous diseases such as HIV and Ebola
or even Zika. We can even kneel down any terrorist forces that have been
threatening the humanity. We can make this planet free from pain and also stick
a smile on everyone’s face. This is how we would transform our world into a
better place to live.
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