I have forged a wonderful
friendship with a French here in Sydney. He has become a very dear friend, with
whom I can share my thoughts and opinions on diverse topics with blatant
honesty, even if we may disagree on several of those issues. He recently had a
knee surgery for a torn ligament, and I tried to visit him as much as I could
as he laid immobilised at home, recuperating.
When I visited him
last Friday, he asked how my week was and to be completely honest, I couldn’t
quite answer him as honestly as I would have wanted to. My week wasn’t great,
especially that Friday. I read the news about the kidnapping of a 12-year-old
boy, Nayati on his way to school. It was spreading all over Facebook, that I initially
dismissed it as SPAM. As more reliable sources started posting up the same news
on their FB profile, I decided to read up more and see if there was any news in
media on it. And shockingly and depressingly there was. A 12-year-old was indeed
kidnapped on his way to school. He looked like a bright young child, with a
wonderful future ahead of him, and he was snatched away from his life. To date,
no news has been heard on his whereabouts although investigations are ongoing.
How does this concern
me and why do I need to talk about it? How can I not? It appals me to even
think of what the kidnappers intend to do to this young child? I can only
imagine the horror of helplessness the parents are experiencing at
the loss of their child. I am sure they would have deployed every means
possible to attempt to find their son, but I do not know if any of these means
will be of any use. Every year, hundreds of children are reported missing. Parents
try to do all they can to find their child back but almost always with little
result. Children are going missing! They are being kidnapped! These kidnappings
may be related to some kind of children prostitution or slavery. I do not know.
What is happening to these children? The rate of heinous rape and murder cases
are increasing alarmingly. We are becoming more and more desensitised to these news. With time, they are evoking lesser anguish and grief in us. It is slowly becoming more of a sensational news, that we observe
from outside, either judging the involved parties, or feeling a brief sense of ‘sorryness’.
What leads anyone to become so deprived of goodness, that kidnappings, rapes, murders and prostitutions has become a liable business and an acceptable act? Do you not
wonder, what leads human beings to become so violent, and inhumane to a fellow
human being?
I wondered. I really
did.
Richard Dawkins, the
popular author of ‘The God Delusion’ said in his debate with Cardinal George
Pell of Sydney, Australia that the ‘why’ question is irrelevant and futile. He
proposed that only the ‘what’ question is of use.
How more mislead can
one be?
Some of the questions
that probes the human heart as he reaches maturity and reason are “Why am I here?”, “Why do
I exist?”. From these questions, then flowed some ‘what’ questions such as “What
am I doing here?”, “What should I be doing?” “What can I do with my life?”.
Aren’t these the questions that drive the human journey of seeking identity.
What happens when a
human person finds no relevance to the ‘why’ questions? One fails to understand
his origin, his humanity, and all the other values that come with it. One fails
to understand his very being and thus is strongly predisposed to act in a
manner contradictory to his humanity. Is that not what is happening to our
human family today? We no longer know who we are. It is almost as if we have
forgotten that we are human beings, belonging to a universal human family,
under the guidance of the beautiful One God.
What happens when we
want to define ourselves or in the concept of Dawkins, nothing, as the truth
and origin of our very being? Finiteness. That’s what we become. An unsustainable
system of human economics, that falls apart with time.
Humanity is falling
apart right before our eyes and it seems almost as if, we’re watching it happen
with a swell of ignorance and arrogance.
And some still wonder
why I believe in God, and that humanity came from God, and not from nothing.
So, the answer to
Hubert’s question is, I am not ok. Very not ok.
What happened to Nayati was truly tragic.
I can't imagine what his parents are going through, and what has happened to Nayati.
Suffering is part of the human experience.
and I empathize with you and the fact that you are empathizing with the suffering in the world around us..
We bring it to prayer, ok? :)
Yes, that is the only thing we can do right now.
Mourning, mourning, mourning.
Take care, dear Jeremy. :)