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Greed
Misdeed
By Rajesh
Chaubey
Oct. 13, 2008 |
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When God
created our Earth and the people on it, His
Angels asked Him who would He choose to lead so
many people. The problem was that humans had
been blessed with very powerful minds and were
highly opinionated. Whose opinion would prevail?
Who would lead and who would follow?
God said that he would make each group of people
leader in rotation. One group would be dominant
and the rest recessive. The dominant would lead
the way till their time was up. Then the next in
the line would take charge.
So it was. One by one the world saw countries
rise to the helm of affairs and lead the world
in their own distinctive way. After the decline
of each leadership came the report card which
told the story of how the world had been
governed in their period of leadership.
India became the leader under the emperor
Chandragupta Maurya. However, that is so way
back in history that very little is known. More
recently, the Romans, Egyptians and Americans
led the world. Each era had its highs and lows
and the report card of the Romans and Egyptians
eras is for all to see and evaluate. Now, with
the rise of the Asian tigers, the American era
is losing steam. The Americans, much like the
other civilizations, are trying desperately to
retain their position but their short sighted,
quick fix solutions of yesterday are coming back
as gigantic problems today. Their Frankenstein’s
monsters.
The world they steered for almost a century is
beset with unprecedented problems of such
magnitude that, if the world survives, the
Americans will be remembered as the civilization
that brought us closest to extinction.
Today we live on a planet which is on the verge
of becoming inhospitable for all forms of life
with its global warming. A world plagued with
terrorism where planting bombs and killing
innocents comes as a natural grievance redressal
for some. A highly polarized world with
stockpiles of nuclear weapons large enough to
destroy all life many times over.
How did we reach here? The answer rings true in
a simple line uttered by Mahatma Gandhi “Earth
provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but
not every man's greed”. The greed for money
manifests itself as global warming and the need
for power and authority manifests itself as
nuclear stock piles and terrorism.
Zooming in from the international to the
national arena, we find that the greed for money
manifests itself as India ranking 85th in the
list of world's corrupt countries, according to
the global watchdog Transparency International.
The need for power and authority manifests
itself as vote bank politics both by Congress
and the BJP leading to communal tensions and
terrorism.
The only way we can heal the wounds we have
inflicted to this planet and the people who live
on it is by a complete change of mental
paradigms with Mahatma Gandhi’s words being our
central philosophy. We can not survive if we
allow greedy people to lead us. We can also not
survive if we ourselves are greedy and aspire
all comforts at the cost of others. Basically we
have to move back in time to the point when our
leaders were patriots and all communities used
to live in harmony as one integrated society.
Sounds very theoretical, yes, but it is not so
in practice.
If we think of our castes, our communities, our
religions and other such considerations, we will
end up electing a greedy man who will be the
cause of further disaster. Can we Indians not
elect our leaders based on just one yardstick -
what good or bad have they done to our country?
Who are the less greedy ones? I agree leaders do
not come in black and white colors and are all
various shades of gray. Let us use our brains to
elect the less black ones. Only if we elect
selfless, responsible leaders can we save
ourselves. Think. Elections are round the
corner.
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