A Human’s Rant For Peace

You know it’s all about how you look at it. Nothing is absolute, everything is relative. Take a look at this compass. It says N on the left right? So, which direction is the North? Is it towards the left? Wrong. It’s on the right because if you stand in front of this compass then you would read N and think North is forward. But here’s the kicker though. What compass says is North is actually Magnetic South that attracts the little magnet. Does that ever amaze you? The Earth’s magnetic field that is present everywhere on this planet. There is a mysterious Force that surrounds us, not in a conspiratorial tone but one of awe. So, what is North? It’s just the opposite of South. There’s nothing inherent about it. Everything is defined with its opposite. A poor person needs to exist in order for you to understand who is a rich person. You have to know darkness to know you are in light. Where am I going with this?

Here has always been this divide between the North and the South. Take Global North and Global South for an example, terms that developmental economists, advocates, and policymakers like to use. They claim this is a better euphemism than saying First World and Third World. You know these words were created in 1946 after the End of World War by US President Henry Truman, right? With one speech he rendered most of the humanity as The Third World. There has always been a divide, between the North and the South. Take countries for an example, the North usually consists of the rulers or more affluent people and the South is less affluent. This is true for cities as well. At least in the cities I have lived so far.

Now I see this divide between the North and the South in Nepal. Some don’t like to admit it, it’s like the ‘Emperor Clothes’ of our lives. We know it’s there but try to ignore, live with it, or try to remedy it. Why does this divide exist in the first place? Is it possible for us to treat everyone equal? You know we are all part of the same species. Not that I’m a speciesist, I am not. I’m a vegetarian and vegetarians can’t be speciesists. Why do we have so much ego and pride?

A jolt of tectonic movement can bring these “house of cards” built with ego, wealth or pride down in a moment. As Nepalis, we know this better than anyone else now. Where is our unity that we showed during the Earthquake?

There is no reason for people in the North and the South to be so proud, pride that is fatal and leads to conflict.

Everything is relative, anyway like I said. How?

Time: What is time? It’s what your watch, laptop or phone says, right? Yeah but how does your phone or laptop know what time it is. From your network or internal clock? How does a clock know what time it is? It has no consciousness. It simply uses a crystal like quartz which vibrates a specific number of times in a specific period of time. This is how time is determined. Interestingly enough, since the Earth is full of magma, it moves during the day with the Sun’s gravity and at some moments in a 24 hour period, the gravity is lower and the clocks run slower. But since all clocks run slower, we don’t notice this.

Length: What is length? It is simply measured as the distance traveled by light in vacuum in a specific period of time. This specific period of time is chosen to make the distance traveled to be 1 m – one unit. So, they fudged even in the most fundamental definitions.

I’ll save more for later. But my point after this long post that no one read, if you did then get a hobby, is that we have to let go of our ego in order to accept others as equal, in order to see the things as they are, without judgement and prejudice. If we all had a little less ego, there would be less conflicts, wars, refugees, and suffering in this world.

Puru Shah

Puru Shah is the founder of Madhesi Youth. For Madhesi Youth, he primarily writes about human rights issues and articles with an emphasis on data analysis & data visualization. His goal is to promote justice, equality, sustainable development, and youth empowerment in Nepal. Connect with Puru Shah on Twitter (@digitalsubway)