Overcoming divisions

Nobody seemed to have read my article. I presume it is too spacious and maybe too incoherent to
find any reader. I am not disappointed as I have lived long enough to get used to it. But I must
stress that threats to human’s existence are real. To highlight my point of man-made disasters, I
quote what Nobel laureate Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary said in China very recently.
This earth, he concluded, is the only one we’ve got; it would be illogical and immoral to fry it.
“Science has unambiguously shown that we’re altering the destiny of our planet,” he said. “Is
this the legacy we want to leave our children and grandchildren?” He also said people, with
science’s help, could solve it. Besides man-made disasters, natural calamities are striking every
part of the globe very often. Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan 6-9 August claiming lives and
causing immense suffering to people and damage to properties. Earthquake struck Japan and
Indonesia twice this month of August, while wildfire is raging California prompting large scale
evacuation. The list of natural calamities that happen every month will grow immensely should
we collate information all over the world. Other common enemies of humanity are equally active
to extinct human race from the surface of the globe. Humanity has the resources, and science has
the solutions to overcome all challenges posed by our common enemies. Then why are we still
dithering? Because we feel divided by race, religion, cast and creed, gender and class based on
wealth and political power. This scourge is unavailable in the animal kingdom. Humanity
behaved differently in olden times. Then people fought only for power to secure wealth for food
and gain foothold of a secured place for procreation out of survival necessity.

Humanity or Homo sapiens evolved in Africa, but later split off to various places on earth in
search of food. Various groups of people were exposed to very different environmental
conditions and vagaries of nature. Adaptation to local conditions gradually resulted in changes in
physical features out of survival necessity. Unlike how we control our environment today for
living, these groups of people had no tool to do that and as such had to endure extreme cold,
scorching heat, extreme drought and drenching rain. Although, various groups have developed
over thousands of years various distinctive features what we call racial attributes, humans are
more akin genetically than we generally tend to think. 99.9% of all human genes are identical. As
various civilizations had flourished and then declined, major religions came one after another.
Not a single major religion could retain its adherents united, they split into various sects and they
have been fighting with each other. Religious violence caused more deaths than what wars did,
and it still continues unabated. I am not going into details. However, I feel there should be debate
over issues that divide religious adherents, instead of burying them behind the closet. Is not time
for every wise individual to do soul-searching as to what is wrong with his/her religion and stop
recriminatory remarks against an adherent of another religion? Is it not time to find common
denominators that unite us? We belong to only one species Homo sapiens, and are sharing the
same abode, same destiny, same heritage and same human wisdom built over millennia, to which
all civilizations, all religions and all human beings individually and collectively contributed. In
my search to find out solutions, I am fully convinced humanity can prevail over divisions along
race, religion, cast and creed and gender and even class based on wealth and political power. By
overcoming divisions, humanity can pool together great wisdom that various civilizations
demonstrated and the frontiers of knowledge and cutting-edge technologies that humanity has
been acquiring through millennia and passing on to succeeding generations and fight our
common enemies, which are hunger, poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, terrorism, diseases, natural
and man-made disasters and environmental degradation. Parents, schools and societies should
create conditions in which every child is brought up to realize that he/she is a member of the
same species and learn to tolerate and then to respect each other in an environment where there is
no racial prejudice, no religious bigotry, no caste, no class based on money and power and no
gender discrimination and where there exists equal opportunities, in fact more opportunities than
what can be utilized as money spent on wars, conflicts and man-made disasters will be diverted
to societal development. This is the ideal condition that I dream of happening in future, not in my
lifetime, when the three goals of “millennium summit declaration” will be met: ‘freedom from
want’, that means, every human being will have his/her five basic needs fulfilled; ‘freedom from
fear’, meaning that there shall be no fear of losing life and property, no fear of persecution and
no fear of torture both mental and physical; and the last ‘freedom of the succeeding generations
to lead sustainable living’ that the present generation must secure by refraining from over-
exploitation of natural resources and degrading environment. Achieving such an ideal condition
on earth shall be the ultimate test of human wisdom what I liken to call descent of heaven on
earth or at least better for women who are presumed to enjoy in heaven privileges, pleasure and
comfort much less than what are in store for men.