Survival of the fittest

Everyday the newspaper, news channels, web sites and other information media are reporting about alarming condition of earth. How the earth is becoming unlivable. How human have contributed in deteriorating the condition of earth. How the sea levels are rising, how glaciers are melting, how temperature is changing, how climate is changing, these have all become common to us. They have become so ordinary that a common man has stopped thinking about it and reading about it. They think human race have lived this way and it will continue living. Most of them are convinced that no such catastrophe will hit the world during their time and who will care for the time when they won’t be here. We all have become unaccountable to the generations that will follow us. Few years back I had seen a hoarding near ‘Baluwatar’ which read ‘We do not inherit the earth and its nature from our ancestors but borrow it from our children’. I was really impressed by it, I guess those days we were being taught about green house effect, global warming etc. I have never participated in any campaign against human misuse of resources, depletion of nature etc. Even then that hoarding still holds meaningful to me. More and more lives are adding every second which means more mouth to feed, more depletion of forests to make home, more consumption of fuel. Human achievements are being measured against its impact on environment. A month back an Indian company ‘Tata Motors’ hit the headline for introducing the cheapest car in the world which cost IRs. 1.25 lakhs around 3000$. This certainly has lighted the face of middle class people who have dreamt about having a car. The efforts of the company is certainly laudable but the internet sites, blogs feared since the car uses petroleum it will only add more smoke in the already polluted air.

In developed countries scientists are looking for alternative ways to fight the problem or to bring to it to a hold. I doubt if that will be of any reason to take a sigh of relief to people from the third world like us. When any catastrophe is to strike it will strike us first, it will strike us the hard. Survival won’t be difficult, I will rather choose the word expensive than the term difficult. May be it will give the same meaning, but for those without money would just die out where as those with bucks would face no problem. There is an unparallel process of development going on in this world, where the developed countries are going higher and higher the poor are going poorer and poorer. We might have our own reservations when we have to give the most dreadful thing that is lurking in the earth against humanity. I would say its poverty. Why are we ill because we are poor, why do we keep fighting against ourselves because we are poor, why don’t we have food because we are poor, why can’t we utilize our resources because we are poor and why are we becoming poorer everyday because we are poor.

After a civil war came to an end we are at the wake of another civil war across more than forty percent of the country. I believe that years after years, generation after generations human race has struggled against disease, war, famine and they have always calmed their hunger, pain and destitution citing that this is the way it is supposed to be. They have seen a majority around themselves going through same hurdles, suffering the same pain. They thought probably this is the way of living. However the reach of information in every country, city, village and tribes of the world has aroused people. This has broken their patience; they want to fight the barricades. They know they are already standing at the edge. Its now or its never. I sometime think the consciousness is asleep inside most of us at least inside those who has to struggle for everyday living. To be able to breathe, to be able to live for next day holds their consciousness in dark. A labor who had a tiresome day will rather fall asleep than contemplating on why his life has been so. He will sleep till the day he manages to live a day and till the day where it seems the other day can be lived just the same way. When the other day looks dark and doubtful, he has to rise. Rather than his consciousness, his wrath explodes. When the fire inside one man ignites, it takes over many other men in its blaze and revolution results, then results unrest, then results civil war. The revolutions that have changed the face of world have occurred the same way. Whether that be French revolution, Russian revolution and the movements for freedom during the colonial time the straw was dry but fire didn’t ignite in all of them, it started in heart of fistful of men. This is the way India got its freedom, this is the way African countries fought back. Fire has always been powerful; a small flint of it can get so bigger that it sets ablaze everything. This is the nature of fire whether that be the real fire or the fire in heart of a man.

When Maoists waged war across the country, when they revolted against the existing system, existing constitution I always thought that this is not the time for revolution but may be that was the demand of time. I couldn’t feel happy that the country is developing just by seeing fistful of industries opening in the capital. The war was not going anywhere, we were in stalemate. People had suffered enough and fire ignited, fistful of people dared to show their frustration in streets which slowly became an ocean of people. The country witnessed a huge upheaval. It send message across every person, community and society that if you voiced for your right, you will get it, if you don’t your children will get it. Terai ran into another war against the biased system. Different groups with ill interests infiltrated the movement which is making one community stand against another. One group fighting for their rights, usurping the rights of another.

Many times I feel, this is the way the nature itself is trying to strike a balance. I read in report which said 1 billion people will die in Africa because of AIDS. Natural disaster is something that does not surprise us. Tsunami swept away many lives and so did hurricanes Katrina and others. The poor countries are all engaged in Civil war. His own achievement has made human race greedy and selfish. Leaders are misinterpreting their defeats in elections with injustice, corruption among many others. The fight is on and it is only getting fierce everyday. More bloods are being shed in world. Less people are dying natural deaths. Every year a new disease threatens human race. Earthquakes visit unlikely places and this has only severed the battle for survival.

We studied Darwin’s law three times, twice in school and once in college. The term that comes to our mind when we hear or read Darwin is ‘Struggle for existence’, ‘Natural selection’ and ‘Survival of Fittest’. He explained why many forms of life namely Dinosaur, mammoth etc. disappeared while we are still here. They did have a tough struggle to protect their survival during the time of changing climate, lack of food etc. but they couldn’t adapt to the changing environment. The other way nature biased some while it forced others to extinct. Human race is going through same struggle. In this struggle the third world countries are fighting for their survival. This is a very strange stage where we have to benefit from others loss. During the cold war the titans fought through their influences. They tried their best to batter the countries which had support of their enemies. This was the fight for proving oneself superior and supreme. But the things have changed now, the battle is not for proving oneself superior but for securing their interest and survival. One country is hatching conspiracy against other because the survival of the other country, the prosperity of other country has posed danger to its own existence. Many civil wars have been the result of this foul play.

Yesterday, I had to return home in a packed microbus putting my body at stake. I had to stand on one feet and holding a bar with a single hand in the door of the small vehicle. I was so terrified at many times specially when another vehicle whistled in the air just by me. The roads were packed with people returning home in their foot. There was very few vehicles in the road and even the roofs were packed with people. There is no electricity, no gas, no kerosene. This is the worst fuel crisis. We seem to be loosing the battle for survival. Gas stations had a long queue of vehicles waiting to be filled. Yesterday a newspaper read only two petrol tankers and twenty diesel tankers entered the city, which pointed to more severe scarcity.