Every day we see an uglier face of our intolerance, crudeness and apathy. Whether its a national party expelling one its most prominent face for expressing his opinion, an MP being pestered for tweeting spontaneously, or the media being attacked for weighing all sides of the truth, it is something the judicial and social system needs to take a good strong look at. The freedom and privacy of an individual and the independence of the governmental machinery need to be preserved, for that is the very spirit of our constitution. But do we always need a mishap, tragedy or death to make us listen? Are we ever-willing to suffer and lose our loved ones before we consider change? It appears so.
The leaders we have elected conveniently forget their constitutional and democratic obligations. They seldom realize that people are more bothered about their daily bread,living in peace, good quality education for their children, having employment opportunities, and such simpler things of life. How many jobs has our government created in reality? Are we able to live and walk around in peace and security anymore? Are our children faring as good as our neighbours when it comes to the education our universities offer? These are more real and immediate questions in front of the people, and things we need to be secure about, before we worry about the ASEAN pact and responsible tourism.
Speaking of which, who is responsible for the Thekkady boat tragedy? Kerala Tourism earned Rs. 13130 crores in 2008, but what part of this money goes into the infrastructure and safety? If the boat that capsized was privately owned, wouldnt heads have rolled and fury been unleashed against privatization?
Newspapers have reported that officially 2467 persons died in road accidents in Kerala this year with 28,100 people getting injured. Where are the crores levied as road tax and license fees? Where does all the crores received from the central assistance and national funds go? Rs.7000 crores were written off and added to the state budget deficit to save the KSRTC. But what is going to save the people and their misery?
We have been worrying about the increasing number of crimes in Kerala for some time now, and about the criminal-politician links, and the paralyzing of the police and legal machinery by politicians. While the state chose to remain silent through all the daily attacks, thefts, and murders, it took a prominent figure to be murdered to stun the system and our people to take notice. Yet, what unfolded was a greater shock and sheer mockery of the policing and legal system in the state, but it is best left to the mainstream media to unravel further. It couldnt have come at a worse time, but we also won the award for the state with the best law and order. Kudos to our people for staying sane and calm, even while being under fear and worry. For it is the people who have earned it, not the government, and they earned it despite the law and order system of the state.
Why do we hate to listen to the truthful statements and honest expressions? Why do we let ourselves be treated like donkeys? Will we always like to live in this imaginary bubble, bloated by ego and denial? Will we always need to pay a price for telling the truth or even listening to it? Will we also need voices from the grave in the end to wake up? It appears so.
THE 'SAVE KERALA' INITIATIVE
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Mishaps, Tragedies, and Voices from the Grave
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19 comments:
@ karthik - guess you didnt read the post..the need is a secure environment, peace, job generation and good education..i didnt voice any opinion against (or for) the asean pact in the post.
You have voiced my worries and how!!! Great great post! That was a blow by blow account of the really worrying happenings in this country. Some of the points you have made here are an eye opener. The fact that it was not a private boat and that it had skipped all safety checks is appalling!! :-O So many lives lost...so many families devastated! I hope they find and punish everyone involved in the vicious circle of corruption and lawlessness!
Helo
Asean pact and Thekkady disaster are the two things making news nowadays. There are some concerns to kerala plantaion sector. While rest of kerala makes benefits. Left is taking mileage from it like any political party. Thekkady disaster that can be avoided. Blame must fall on the kerala society as a whole. No body in Kerala, after the last boat mishap talked about it in any forum. No newspapers,visual media,general public,citizen,nor the government. It shows apathetic attitude prevailing in kerala nowadays. There are only scandals. Govt,media,public all behind scandals. No one to trust. corruption,nepotism,minority activism ,majority activism. They are ruling kerala. What we can do is to pray for the best to return .
Your observations are absolutely spot on. It does seem like the current politicos of our wonderful state seem hell bent on destroying it. They are living proofs of the old adage "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". If only our state had learnt it's lessons form the Kumarakom and Thattekad disasters, the Thekkady disaster could have surely been avoided.
Reading your blog, I feel like you seems to be living under constant fear. See every person born will have to die. That is the law of nature. So why worry?
You have asked a good question:
Will we always like to live in this imaginary bubble, bloated by ego and denial?
But do you have the courage to break it?
Unni your comment seems a little confusing to me.The author here is already questioning the imaginary bubble expressing his views in times where people are apathetic .
Whenever reality hits hard we are ashamed of our apathy. We then either deny the problem or try finding faults at people who think aloud.
Dying is law of nature but creating a disharmonious environment with one's inventions and thereby killing mankind is called destroying nature and that's unnatural.
I was told the boat cap sized was designed by a professor in my institute. We cant afford errors and if we do we have no rights to boast over science and our knowledge.
Yeah death is inevitable but that does not mean I take bribes and construct poor quality bridges, poor quality part for aircrafts and arms and kill people coz of my dishonesty.
Well to be frank, Kerala is plagued with double speak. Looking at the state of the capital we are shocked the roads, infrastructure and tourist unfriendly attitude. Why some temples are displaying non hindus not allowed, when it is gods own country i am bemused ? Certain basic questions needs to be asked before things are correct, on the ground people are not all tourist friendly ? thank god i have some good friends in the state that is why i visit otherwise we have better destinations in my home state itself
People.. It is easy to blame, but hard to get something done by us. We have selected the government and we did wt we thought best for us. Its our decision to let them rule us, so we have to face the consequences too. To be frank, i wont say we had too many options to choose our leaders. Every election we will choose somebody whom we think will perform better than the previous one and do some justice to our state and will end up worse than the previous one. We face every election with hope, a hope that atleast at this time we are going to get good things and our complaints will be heard and it wont take much time for us to see the disappointment. It is life and we take it as it comes. Nobody want to get out of their comfort zone and do something for the people and the country. This includes me too. I wont say we dont have good leaders. I say we dont have good people who are ready to live their life for the country, or atleast give a thought about it.
nice work...this weeks photo is really touching...
begining of the end?
we believe in locking the stable after the horse has bolted. see what's happening in jaipur now!
If Kerala's the state with the best law and order and, we all know how bad things really are here, imagine how bad things are in the rest of the country.
I've been in Saudi Arabia for quite a some time and have very good friends from Kerala.
I love kerala and simpilicty of the people living there; at least to whom I met during my stay in Saudi Arabia.
bhuji, Sorry for the delayed reply.
I appreciate the author's ability to see that there are problems. I was questioning the solution methodology he is suggesting. His intentions are good, but the avenues of solution he is thinking is right, may not be the ideal ones.
Its better to treat disease by the cause than treating each symptom one by one. Trying to reduce the temperature during fever by cooling with ice will be a funny analogy ;-)
Nice blog. As far as I think, things WILL change, but only if educated people like Shashi tharoor joins politics. Also people should start to behave responsibly. And rules like voting an election candidate "not fit for the job" should be used by people if required.
No developed place is cherished over night. But we have to start contributing whatever we can.
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