Other answers..................... Hello President sir, Let me first mention that it is an absolute honour getting to answer your question. Thank you for this timely put forward question of yours concerning one of the gravest issues mankind has ever faced i.e. terrorism. Coming to your question, I think this is the question you have asked yourself many a times while the execution of the prime convict of the terrorist attack on our parliament rested on a single nod or “nay” of yours. I know the decision isn’t entirely yours but, as publicized by media—your stand in Afzal’s case does matter. Before I put forward my answer, I would like to analyze, from whatever I have seen, read and pondered over; the root-cause(s) of terrorism. Terrorism has different facets, different levels of severity and different circumstantial causes. But in my view, it has common roots which start growing with mistrust, grow to the limits of distrust and end up bringing the involved communities/ individuals into disrepute. Two communities which have different interests (take any two fast developing countries for example) have a certain air of competition and mistrust between each other. A few occurrences of miscommunication, lack of communication or vile acts of a few people who do not belong anywhere spark the feelings of enmity and complete loss of trust. This is where the targets i.e. both the opposing parties are “softening up” themselves for the heinous crimes of terrorism. When we directly or indirectly segregate ourselves from others, we plant a negative thought in their minds. And the thought reads- “indifference.” Yes, we start off as being “indifferent” to each others’ woes. Actually, as humans, we are somehow destined to connect and be affected by each other. “Indifference” is tougher to achieve than to mention. In an attempt to remain indifferent to your neighbour’s woes, you actually end up hating his success(es) which I believe is the first step in the direction of inhumanity and terror. There is another way terrorism can branch out of its roots. The other way is called “insecurity”. Difference of interests among two communities which are both even on all grounds is not as dangerous a situation as is the difference between those two communities among which one is dominant over the other. The smaller and weaker community is weak in totality but the same cannot be said about the members of the weaker community. A human is never born weak. When they sense that the bigger tree is sucking away all the nutrition from the earth, they feel insecure (ironically, a trait of the meek) and resort to terrorism. Sometimes, it is just the human within us that gets the best of us. The “mob mentality” it is! Most of the times the wrong-doers are a few but they are the loudest and hence the most apparent. We form “generalizations” (here comes another of the roots of terrorism i.e. quick generalizations) based on those few loud members of a community which leads to misinformation and hence, miscommunication. Now, that I have made clear what I think is the cause of terrorism as a whole; let me put forward my humble answer to you. I hope you like it. I have never been a big fan of the capital punishment per se. As I have already suggested that the roots of terror are very deep rooted—so much so, that if you completely shift your perspective to match that of a member of the community which is said to be churning out terrorists, you can somewhat justify your means. This is the reason you have to kill the cause and not the people. The easiest method to do it, the way I see it, is by the help of communication. What starts off with miscommunication can possibly be uprooted by communication. To bring it down to Layman’s terms: When an Indian chats with a German, a French, an Afghan, an Iraqi or a Pakistani; they do not sound like they are any different from him. We all love good music, we all love our family and we all follow the same fundamental philosophies of life. There might be differences of interest superficially but, as humans we all just bleed red. This fact needs to be spread and shared with everyone and the only way to do it is communication and media. Movies have been a bridge between India and other countries for decades. Here are some fruits of my thought process- 1.Promote Secularism through textbooks. I am thankful to all those chapters in the textbooks I had growing up which had pictures and stories of a Hindu and a Muslim celebrating each other’s festivals with joy and goodwill. A tender mind in childhood can be moulded in any desired way. Let us sculpt a transparent mind with room for respect towards every human culture and religion and no room for envy and hatred. Let’s make communalism a no issue. 2.Worldwide Television and Radio. How about this—all the nations of the world join hands with UN (or create an organization of their own) to put to air a few satellite Television and Radio channels which cover features, news, music, cultural sketches and special stories from all over the globe(?) Every nation gets an equal opportunity to display all the good things it has to offer and share with rest of the world. This would promote mutual understanding and perpetual dissolution of hostility or lack of respect towards each other. The beauty pageants, a few TV channels are doing just that. But, I think we need to do it more often, on a grander scale and with better communicability. By better communicability I mean that the material should either be dubbed or be staged in local languages (with some added local flavour). I guess, there can be better ways to share cultures. This was the best I could think of. I’ll wait for the time when we will have more performers of “worldwide” fame and a better and bigger audience of every form of art. Terrorism will die screaming under all this. 3- A Fearless Stand. As people, I think it is our responsibility to get our views registered. Getting noticed is not in our hands but raising voices is. When you think something wrong is going on, you have to do something about it. As a journalist, you have to let is be known to people; as a blogger, you have to blog about it, as a Newspaper reader, you have to e-mail the editor about it… some way or the other, we all have to stand firm and express our viewpoint. You have to learn this from the enemy. They are always fewer than us, but they get their violent thoughts known to the world. Why can’t we fight back with the same weapon? o 261 121 o o Comment • Akum Longchari answered 8 years ago I appreciate the implication of the question posed by the President of India before us all because as I understand it, the ‘out-of-box solutions’ suggest that the existing paradigm guiding the ‘War on Terror’ has been futile. In fact it has proved counter-productive and one might even add that this paradigm on the ‘War on Terror’ threatens solutions to terrorism. Terrorism today is constructed as a kind of enemy that cannot be conceptualized in traditional terms. It is a phenomenon built over time, without territory in the traditional sense. The war on terror is therefore mostly a clash of culture, worldview, ideas, narrative, history, chosen glories and chosen traumas. The War on Terror has been narcissistically obsessed with the ‘other’ and the more walls that we build around us, the more we will have to tear down, when we finally realize that we actually need each other. Hence the endeavor to find out of the box solutions to terrorism is not about who they are, it really is about we are and how we respond to issues of injustice. How we address injustice (of all forms) is decisive to whether we can build a world free of terrorism. Therefore if we are to explore together the idea of out-of-box solutions to terrorism, then it is quite essential that we first put a human face to it. Naturally this suggestion contravenes the existing paradigm of War on Terror, because all that this War on Terror has done is to create the image of an enemy of the ‘other’ and pursues the idea that purports the efficacy of force, which has only bred more violence. The lack of critical imagination and the arrogance of power have perpetuated the assumption that the hammer is the only means available to deal with people who disagree with you. The perpetual resort to force manifests a deepening belief in force as a method above all else which inevitably stands out as a monolithic structure. To make this world free of terrorism, demands that we must make this world free of violence. It is of absolute necessity to address the question of violence with clarity and foresight, because violence is at the root of terrorism. By violence, I mean, state violence, structural violence and other forms of violence that prevents the fullness of a dignified humanity. Without a doubt, good sense must prevail in recognizing that it is virtually quite impossible for the world to eliminate terrorism, or to eliminate the ‘other.’ If our response to terrorism is more violence, that in the final analysis, we would end up being no better, possible even worse. We need evolve a new paradigm in which our response to issues of terrorism demands of us to find creative, imaginative and responsive ways to engage with injustices. Such a paradigm must find ways to end violence and its consequences. We must explore new ways to address conflicting interest in more creative, imaginative and peaceful ways, in which the use of force has no role. I would like to envision (think) a few decades ahead from where we are, where humans would have already realized a shared humanity, and then from there work ourselves to the present and in the process try and identify what it would mean and it is demand of us to achieve a shared humanity. Indeed our shared humanity is based on the idea that the security and well-being of any one community, nation or people is connected and interdependent with the well being of others, requiring mutual respect, understanding, cooperation, and investment in our mutual destiny. In reality there is no road that leads to peace, Peace itself is the road; and it begins to emerge only when all forms of injustices that destroy human dignity are removed. It is a praxis which demands addressing all forms of injustices through fairness and righteous means and it necessitates the transformation of all unjust systems to ensure that the injustices are not committed again. In the end, political courage is the living power of human perception that nurtures and expands a vision for the future by transcending the existing realities which is limited by present conditions of an impoverished mind. Today must be that day we decide to speak for ourselves and find our own solutions to the question terrorism and the challenges of a shared humanity. o 236 137 o o Comment • westfield47130 answered 8 years ago Sir, I really believe that the real evil is not the terrorism. It is the media and everything they do to undermine efforts to combat terrorism, in the name of free speech. Until we make the media accountable for their false reportings and reportings that undermine efforts, then terrorism will feed on the information given. I believe in freedom of speech, I also believe that with that freedom comes great responsibility to report the truth or nothing at all if it inhibits any government from operating special operations. So with great freedom comes responsibility and accountability. o 189 103 o o Comment • penworkdesigns answered 8 years ago WE ALL NEED TO CARE!! C-communication, to create understanding between people A-appreciation of each others cultural differences R-respect of each other no matter religion, race or colour E-education for all to abolish negative thought and ignorance. o 146 69 o o Comment • qamper answered 8 years ago We need an international effort to help educate the world on a social level. Much of the fighting is based on fears that are unwarranted and could be resolved if both sides understood each other. Humanity instinctively fears what it does not know. Eliminate the ignorance, and you eliminate much of the intolerance. We need to present our cultures on a human level, instead of a generalization. It wouldnt be a cure all, and would probably be a large expense. But even saving one life from a death by ignorance would be priceless. o 153 77 o o Comment • crossndunk answered 8 years ago the most important thing that needs to happen is that we need to stop hyping up every action that terrorists do, we are only terrorizing ourselves
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 09:50:18 +0000
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