Unless you live like a hermit and don’t read or listen to what’s going on in the world, you will have long realized that we as a people are in crisis.
All over the world, regardless of size, economic growth or industrial stability, we are all under threat.
The floods, the wildfires, the dry spells, the starvation and the constant wars are all caused by us because we are not prepared to deal with the situation that we have created.
We have a habit of ignoring, pretending that none of us are to be blamed and hoping that the problems will go away, believing in the old local saying that ’It will be alright in the morning…’
Let us start with our own Country. I don’t know if you have taken a sea bath of late, but the sea waters are hotter than usual. As for the forests we used to have and cherish, all are being cleared for modern-day development, inclusive of housing.
Most of the food we plant to eat is highly laced with chemicals. We continue to pollute our waterways. Most of our people – young and old – are hooked on substances like alcohol, weed, hashish and in some cases cocaine and or prescription drugs.
We have a situation of not seeing garbage because we create it and we’ll kill each other for spite in the same way we destroy our investment.
Our children are slowly becoming malnourished because of the junk food cultural habits that we have adopted.
We cut down but will not plant and we seem to assume that in the long run, things will get better, because we voted for a government that will take care of all our needs and concerns.
Looking outside this state at some other countries, the story is the same or has worsened. This means that mankind has lost its way and is participating in the crisis; and because of greed, power, the quest for wealth and material achievement, we continue to contribute to our demise.
As to what we can do to avoid the continuation of this situation, your guess is as good as mine, because no one is an island.
To my mind, we may not be able to save the world from itself, but if we are aware and try to reverse our attitude towards how we do things, we just may protect ourselves from this critical situation.
I have always known that education is key to keeping people informed, but most people hear but don’t care to listen, some look but do not see, and our educators have not found the formula to ensure that most understand the implications of our actions.
The old biblical saying explains the fact that “it is fruitless to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of our souls” and in our case, our planet is forgotten.
We have to learn from the mistakes of others, we have to call a spade a spade, we have to become better at enforcement and learn to listen or pay the price for our choice of behaviour.
In our case, our ignorance and arrogance are the common factors because all or most of us are supposed to be sensible, smart and educated — and should know better but refuse to adhere to logic.
The time will come when we will say to each other: If we had only listened or paid attention to all the warnings…
Hope that for our country’s sake it will not be too late, but we cannot forget the old local saying ‘Lakatan ka tann may zot paka tan…’ (‘Everyone’s hearing the noise, but you’re playing deaf!’