Outrage!

It is a feeling of sheer helplessness, to read/hear about acts of terror, every second day. Thanks to the fourth estate, we are served news of dastardly acts against humanity for breakfast. Primetime news leaves us with disturbing visuals of terrorists’ handiwork.

 

I was just reading about a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team that was touring Pakistan. Five lives lost, and some folks injured. The news will be all over the papers, the radio, TV channels, for a couple of days. There will be drawing room conversations based on the topic (with my comments in parentheses):

 

Speaker 1: (while munching on her muffin and sipping her coffee) “Tch…tch… sad, no? What is this world coming to?”

 

Speaker 2: “Seriously! All these terrorists should be captured and shot!”

 

(Yeah, dodo! Why did'n’t anyone ever think of that? You’re a genius! Speaker 2 for the Home Minister’s post! Hooray!!!)

 

Speaker 3: “No, they should be paraded to the city square and hanged publically.”

 

(Ahem… don’t you think one would need to capture them first?)

 

Speaker 1: “Pakistan is a terrorist state; it should be banned.”

 

(Absolutely! If we don’t have electricity for an hour a day, it’s because of them. If I get bad grades at school, it’s because of them. If my neighbour’s dog bites me, it’s because of them, right?)

 

Speaker 3: “You know, these people are brought up this way! Their religion teaches them to kill. What can one do?“

 

(What can one do about you, you FAT COW? You’ve been brought up to think of nothing more than manicured nails, kitty parties, and silly conversations. What do you know of religion?)

 

Speaker 2: (with more vehemence) “I still say that these terrorists should be captured and shot!”

 

(O kind sire, why don’t you go out and do that, instead of sitting here, turning blue in the face, and pounding your fist on the table?

 

Speaker 4: “Come on guys, we must leave! The movie show begins in 20 minutes.” ($#@%)

 

Of course, there will be folks like me, who express their outrage, and spit venom for a few days. We’ll try to satirize people who have no perspective, yell, shout, flail our arms, and do everything except address the issue. After a few days, our daily schedules, movies to watch, things to do will drag us back, and we’ll lose all memory of recent events. This is not to say that ala Guy Pearce, we tape post-its to ourselves, or tattoo our bodies with memories of these horrific incidents. To tell you the truth, I guess there’s not much that we can do directly.

 

Except, maybe we could try and shed our attitude of suspicion towards ethnic minorities, not equate certain religions with terrorism, and try and integrate better with others. It sounds like an awful lot for a single human to do, but then, as a Buddhist saying goes, “If we are facing the right direction, all we have to do is keep walking.”

 

P.S. I hope the families of all those who suffered in the ambush on the Sri Lankan cricket team find peace, and we don’t see a repeat of any such incident worldwide.