Random thoughts on where we are heading?

So it has been a while that I have written anything, and I take the complete blame for that as I was procrastinating as usual. I have had a few thoughts on many things, but I’ve had my own personal problems too, which kept me busy and disturbed for a while. Well anyway, now that I am able to write something, let me get straight to it.

So over this past week and weekend, I read a lot about the situation in Myanmar in news articles, in talk shows, and in TV news. I have to confess that in the beginning I wasn’t too keen at the news, as it sounded like nothing out of the blue. And that is exactly the feeling that has provoked me to write now, what I feel. Why is there so much unrest in the world? What has gone so wrong in the past 50 or so years that forced us to change the way we live our lives? Or is it that the world has never changed and it is just that we have learnt new ways to ignore problems, and have gotten so tired trying to make things right that we have started comprising with the situation instead? What is it?

I know I sound lost and confused, but isn’t that the state of each one of us when we look at the situation in our respective countries (both where we belong to, and where we have immigrated to)? I know many of us would only like to look at things positively and be optimistic, but would it harm us to stop sometime and think about the broader, bigger issues we face as a citizen rather than our day-to-day personal problems? I know I am asking too many questions, and I for one definitely do not have all the answers, but I would be interested to know what others think about this.

Over this past weekend, my wife and I decide to rent some movies. We watched Swades, Children of men and then Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Children of men is quite frankly a disturbing movie, which to my understanding has a shaky, over the top, futuristic story, but the context of the story or the core of the issue is something that we can definitely relate to given our current situation. The movie shows UK in the year 2027 (or 2028), when the government has declared illegal immigrants as criminals and refugees, and are fighting against them in every way possible in every street, nook and corner. And it has been 18 years since a single child has been born in the world (yeah rite!!). Like I said it’s a shaky base for a movie. One of the confusing parts of the movie was that they don't give you a concrete reason as to why the fertility of men and/or women stopped in the first place. The other confusing part was that the rebellion groups they showed in the movie were mostly of Islamic background. However, the civil unrest shown in the movie has an identifiable context about illegal immigrants.

Don't we also have bigger issues to look into, for instance with our environment like global warming, fuel problems, etc, which have been getting worse than before and will have bigger repercussions if ignored? But are we doing anything immediately about it? Many governments and politicians complain that we are not investing much into these issues. So let me get this straight, in US, every year we do have massive amounts of money to be spent on events like parades (New Years day, Thanksgiving day, Columbus Day, St. Patrick’s day, etc), on Sports (NBA, NFL, PGA, US Open, etc), on game shows with huge prize money (Power of 10, Deal or No Deal, etc), political fund raisers, and many other things but we are not able to invest money to save our planet? Is this right? Is there any justification on such spending? Can’t we for one year save all this money and instead invest it to improve our environment, which affects all of us? I know this sounds child-dish, but think about it. This is the money that is really not being put to proper use, as it is being targeted and spent on a selective segment or audience to make them happy by watching it, and reward the players for their hard work in the sport (this is still valid, but a year shouldn’t hurt). Would you rather that a few years down the line, the government out of sheer frustration and non-availability of funds start charging everyone “Global Warming Tax” for improving the environment because we would have lost control by then? Things like these are not uncommon. Has anyone heard about traffic “Congestion Tax”? London, I believe already charges congestion tax to certain types of vehicles entering the main areas during regular rush hours. New York is also trying to come-up with something similar, although it will be very difficult to implement such a thing. So the point is that, if we don’t take proactive steps right now to prevent certain problems, we will be forced at a later point of time, and we will not be given any choice either.

Coming back to the movies, the other movie I watched was Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Apart from being a good comedy film the movie is also thought provoking as is Swades. But they both have their separate points. The target audience for both the movies are the same...the common Indian citizen, and so are some of the problems like our failing government systems, our disinterest in improving the system because we have given up hope of its improvement, and our being satisfied as a by-stander rather than being actively involved. Why is it, that even after 60 years of independence, we Indians are still talking about issues like water, electricity, and failing government systems in our country? Why is it that while on one hand, we talk about becoming a global power, on the other hand we ignore our villages that don't even have the basic necessities and our main metropolitan cities also face similar issues. Do we realize that the capital of our country Delhi still faces issues with electricity and water in some areas consistently? I know Chennai and Mumbai also have such issues, and although I do not know much about the situation in Kolkatta, it shouldn’t be any different if not worse. So the four big metropolitan cities of the worlds future global power is still trying to sort out its grass root existence problems. Isn't that something we should all be ashamed of? In Munna Bhai MBBS, there is a scene where a Chinese tourist is trying to take photos of poor children, and when asked why doesn't he look at other things in India like the Taj Mahal he says..."No, No, I want to take photos of India. India with poor people, hungry people”! I think I've said enough!