Dear Colleagues! This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #582. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi onWordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here.
Today is the last day of the Year 2021. 31 December.
I pray and wish the year is closing with good memories for you. I also pray and wish that the new year brings loads of blessings and happiness for you, your family, and your loved ones. Aameen.
People are the most important asset on this planet. And unfortunately, people are most ill-treated on this earth.
Climate change is a tangible issue which cannot be brushed under the carpet. It has been created by the humans because of misuse of natural resources over centuries, which did not stop even after the fact was recognized, studied, and understood. Droughts have made life impossible in various parts of the world. Flooding is making living impossible in other parts of the world. The entire environment is disbalanced and on the verge of catastrophe, but we are still far from taking concrete actions
Economic disparity due to unequal distribution of wealth is prevalent in all parts of the world. However, in the less developed areas, the actual concern is the huge gap between haves and have-nots’. This has not been divinely ordained; it is man’s doing. We cannot possibly imagine the hardships faced by millions. We cannot truly feel the battle for survival that goes on every minute، the thoughts which would be going on in a mother’s mind who must protect her children from dying of hunger and disease. The picture of Vitasoa who walked 5 hours to bring her 4 out of 6 children to the free MSF clinic says a lot. They had nothing to eat for days because nothing was growing due to drought.
COVID has been a major cause of increase in poverty in the last two years. Across continents, people lost lives, money, jobs, businesses, families, and homes. The picture from Tefé, Brazil about an old woman being carried from Amazon area to hospital shows the range of COVID effect. Brazil had the second most deaths due to virus.
Violence has become a despicable yet integral part of most societies. Violence against women, children, and men is so rampant in most parts of the world, it is heartrending and spirit-breaking. Violence is coming in huge waves, and it comes in many forms. Villages after villages in Africa are attacked by armed groups for no apparent reason. They cannot get money from those poor people, and no politics get benefited. Even then, scores of men are killed, women are violated, and children are killed or left alone to die. At some level, we are not even looking at these events. The world powers have more important things to do, namely, extending and sustaining their dominance.
Racism is embedded in genes, and all that is said against it is mere lip service. When Britain colonized large parts of Africa, they made laws which said that African people shall not be treated as humans, they shall be considered commodity, chattel. It was the end of all human kind of treatment for them and it is continuing. The aid that is handed out is charity of the poorest kind which is so meagre it does not do anything. One African American said that the money owed to Caribbean people alone amounts to 14 trillion US dollars. And it is not just money, it is also about reparations, restoring honor, peace, and position which will never come.
Our own home, Pakistan is now suffering from the worst kind of bigotry, prejudice, ignorance, violence, fanaticism, and intolerance. The mode of expression and language has deteriorated to unbelievable depths. You don’t need to go far. Just read few comments on Twitter or other social media. No one is safe in any way and carrying armed guards in double-cabins around luxury cars will not guarantee security. Our collective wisdom is becoming infested by short-term gains at the cost of long-term benefits. And we are still told we are going on the path to paradise.
The situation here and everywhere is serious and requires urgent attention. We must wake up individually first, so that we can then do collective action.
توسن زیست ہے خرِ پا لنگ
آنکھیں موندے ہیں آپ جس پہ سوار
آدمی’ آدمی نہیں ہے ابھی
آدمی ہے ابھی فقط جاں دار
Concluded.
Disclaimer. Most pictures in these blogs are taken from Google Images which does not show anyone’s copyright claim. However, if any such claim is presented, we shall remove the image with suitable regrets.
1 comment
Though humans are most important asset on this planet yet they are most ill treated one way or the other, what a tragedy !!