It’s time to wake up, fight fire. Time to sit around in our homes and just throw money at affected people has passed.
BERKELEY, US: Set your head down on your recently fluffed pillows, pull over your warm blanket, turn the lights off and close your eyes. Toss and turn, finally fall asleep. Dream of innocent faces bloodied by the body parts of bomb blast victims. Crumbling families surround you. The screams and cries of innocent victims drown out every other thought of yours. Ten to 15 people live in a one-to two-bedroom house, if you can call it that. Children are forced into work to provide at least one meal a day for their family; they have no childhood, no education and no hope. They are stripped of their basic rights while we sleep in our comfortable houses with multiple servants to tend to our every whim. Wake up with a cold sweat. How can you not be moved by the plight and suffering of fellow human beings? How can you just lie down and go to sleep? Keep doing the things you do without fear of consequences, without any empathy? How can the screams and faces of those hurt mentally, physically and emotionally not stir your soul? How does your stomach not turn, how does your core not shatter? How can you be so insensitive and unmoving? Doesn’t something inside you shift and tell you it is time to do something, it is time to wake up?
Karachi, it’s time to wake up and fight fire, the time to sit around in our homes and just throw money at affected people has passed. We need to get up and do something, set an example for others around us. If the educated upper class doesn’t do anything, then who will? Now, a new day has arisen, lay your head down again and dream, dream of a place where humanity exists, where life is more precious than ego, where people live in harmony, where religion is a binding force rather than a divisive one and where tolerance exists, where every child regardless of their race, religion, creed or social status has a childhood and an equal opportunity to achieve the best they can; imagine a world where everyone has a smile on their faces instead of tears and pain. Imagine and then make it a reality.
Nireen Shehzad Salim
University of California, Berkeley
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2013.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
