WE ARE HEARTLESS || "for the humans who are taken not humans"

" WE ARE HEARTLESS"

"for the humans who are not  taken, humans"

“Our human compassion binds us the one to the other-not in pity or patronizingly but a human being who has learned how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future”

                                                                                                                              ~NELSON MANDELA

Are we really humans or does a heart with kindness care and little love for others make us human? This is a question which often makes me think about ourselves and our society that how we are so cruel to other people and sometimes to animals too, yes! Animals are also harmed by us. But today I’ll just talk about human cruelty to other humans. Have you ever thought about what the main difference between humans and animals is? That is humanity, the act which we have completely forgotten today. When did we lose our compassion? When did we lose our humanity? There are hundreds and thousands of questions regarding this specific topic, we search it on internet, have you ever thought that where it should be searched, so the answer is it should be searched in our own hearts in our souls, it is not available on any website of the internet or at any shop so that you can buy it. Humanity is caring, loving, helping, and letting others breathe, whether they are black, white, rich, poor, ugly, or maybe a bad person but they have equal rights to live their life because they are also humans just like us, their children are also humans like ours they also have families, friends and maybe some have many dreams but our cruelty kills the humanity. We say we are educated enough to distinguish between right and wrong but we have never ever said that we are kind enough to be a human, to make difference between humans and animals and you know what!

“Being human is given but keeping our humanity is a choice”

If we have a choice to keep our humanity then why not we are taking a step on it! Yes, step that step which makes you a human by helping people in need, the people who are under oppression for many years and we are not united to raise voices for them. Now just getting on to my point, I’ll like to talk about the countries that are under inhumanity for many years which includes Political crises, Religious discrimination, and yes our complexion our families our houses and our appearances do matter to get equal rights. We people are used to talk about abuses, bullying and honors but we never liked to talk about the things, which are destroying the whole world and top listed countries for these acts are America, Burma, Yemen, Palestine, and many more in the south and west of Asia.

Let’s talk about what’s going on in Yemen the UNITED NATION says it has the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet. And in a world with all sorts of problems that is saying something. Yemen went from being the heart of ancient Arabia to one of the poorest countries in the Middle East. And for the last 6 years, it’s been torn apart by war. Local groups on the ground are fighting each other while a Saudi-led coalition bombs from above. And caught in the fighting are millions of Yemenis desperately struggling to survive. So how did things get so bad? And is there a way out? The first thing to know about the war in Yemen is that there are a lot of players. Starting with this man “Ali Abdullah Saleh”, He was Yemen’s president for 20 years since 1990. This is the man who once compared ruling over Yemen to ‘dancing on the heads of snakes’. It’s no wonder that during the Arab Spring of 2011 Yemenis rose up against Saleh in the hope that things might get better. But they didn’t. And this is where the next big player comes in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the most influential member of countries known as the Gulf Cooperation Council. And it was the GCC that oversaw negotiations to finally force Saleh out. The GCC deal helped install a new government in Yemen and put vice president “Abd-Rabbu Mansur Hadi” in charge. Yemen continued to suffer under President Hadi after the revolution the initiatives that had come out of the revolution were brokered by Gulf powers that simply appeared to return the same old elites to power. So, by 2014 some of Yemen’s factions began to lose patience. One of them was the “HOUTHIS” another player of this war. Now Houthis are Shia-Muslim minorities from Northern Yemen. They say they’ve been marginalized and often rebelled against the government. And during the Arab Spring, they were very involved in the uprising against Saleh. But here comes the twist the Houthis and Saleh were both sidelined by the GCC’s plan for Yemen’s new government. So the former enemies joined forces. The Houthis, together with some of Saleh’s allies still in the army took over Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014. Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia. And then the Saudis along with several other countries formed a coalition to return their man Hadi to power. And Saudi Arabia expressed three main war aims: It wanted to restore the government of President Hadi, It wanted to protect its own southern border and to prevent Yemen from fragmenting and it wanted to contain the perceived growing influence of Iran in the region. We’ll come back to Iran but first, we have to talk about the Saudi-led intervention. It was a campaign of relentless airstrikes. Yemenis have got more than 19,000 attacks in the last five years according to the latest report. Saudi-led forces say that they’ve been targeting the enemy but right groups accuse the coalition of bombing dozens of hospitals and schools killing thousands of Yemenis civilians, this brings us to Yemen’s immense humanitarian crises.

 In this war, it’s not just the fighting that’s causing all the suffering. Even aid is being used as a weapon. In 2015, the Saudi-led coalition created a land, sea, and air barrier around Yemen making it almost impossible for supplies to get in or out. The Houthis are also blamed for blocking, destroying, or taking aid. And Yemenis desperately need it. Today the only meal is a plate of plain boiled rice between the families. Cholera cases are spreading fast. Doctors are facing a severe shortage of drugs. In a country of 29 million people, the UN says 24 million depend on some kind of humanitarian help, that’s nearly the entire population of Australia. And more than 11 million children require humanitarian aid, nearly every single Yemeni child. They don’t have anything to eat and most of them don’t have any shelter now. Where are our people who are used to raise their voices for the sake of human rights, we don’t have an answer but they(Yemenis) have, their children have many dreams to live a happy life, maybe to become a doctor, engineer, or teacher. But they are not able to even breathe freely. 7 months back a poem was orally narrated by the young people of the Yemen community who had migrated from Yemen “OUR YEMEN” today I’m going to write that here:

“I wish I could go back to Yemen,

I miss climbing the mountains,

I miss having graces

I wish I could go back but there is a war-

Help the innocent injured

Treat that untreated,

Millions die each year

Children head to toe in tears

The Yemenis are in need.

Isn’t the world to fall off?

Grid cluster bombs have fallen on my home,

Watching my loved one’s all alone,

I wish I could go back,

But Yemen is unsafe for me and my family-

I miss the smell of the petrol,

I miss the smell of the fat,

I wish I can visit my family.

I miss writing my name in the sunlight,

I miss playing marbles in the streets,

I wish I could see my grand-mother again

I wish I can taste the food,

I miss chasing chicken on road,

I wish I have my family here with me,

I wish I could go back.”

Hey people! Do we really have a kind heart; can’t we raise a voice for the people suffering from the world’s worst humanitarian crisis? All I would like to say is they are humans just like you, me, and our families, what if you are treated like this? You will fight, wouldn’t you? Why not now? Nobody cares, famous rich powerful people, they do nothing they started just like you like me like all of us. Yemen was the place where you can afford to get lost and still feel welcomed in the strangers’ arms and now young boys are begging access to their beloved home missing their homeland. They are still praying for the protection of the civilians. They are praying for the help of aid and to deal with famine and now COVID-19 but they do not have even the essentials to beat their crises.

And that’s not all, where Yemen is struggling with these crises every day, many countries are leading to a huge act of RACISM, yes I’m talking about racism it is also a non-human act. People are killed because of their complexion, is it our humanity? They are raising their voices against their leaders but nobody is listening to them just because they are black and are minorities. And it has become a hot topic these days, I am sure you know which country is playing a leading role when it comes to RACISM; yes I’m talking about AMERICA. But the question here is: If a drink driving offense is a weapon and your complexion is the crime, what do you do to stay alive, comply like George Floyd OR run like Robert Brookes I’m not asking just because of their cruelty but are they, humans?

Do they have at least had a little piece of kindness in any smallest part of their hearts? And it’s not just about George Floyd or Robert Brookes, it’s about humanity the whole human community, If we humans are doing these things to other humans that are the creatures of the same species what will be the difference between humans and animals? When we’ll learn to open our minds and hearts? We should think that although we are divided by casts, society, communities, and complexions we all are united by the fact that we all are humans. Now just get into, what’s actually happening in America; recently a black man George Floyd (46) is killed in the custody of the police, and the video of his death at the hands of police in Minneapolis triggered protests all around the world. It brought renewed attention to the high-profile deaths of black Americans during the past decades and ongoing concerns about systemic racism in the criminal justice system. The police response in some cities has further fueled protesters, leading to calls to defund the police. In Washington D.C., President Trump’s use of the military and federal police to seize control of part of the city including dispersing peaceful protestors in Lafayette Square near the White House—has drawn heavy criticism from the public and top military figures. Floyd’s killing, during the coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately infected and killed black people, has exposed long-standing racial inequities in every aspect of American life and forced a deep reckoning across society. Corporations are pledging to combat systemic racism in their companies. Some cities are considering proposals to eliminate police or reduce funds to police departments. And activists have renewed calls to remove Confederate monuments, with some even topping the statues themselves. It would be naïve to think that data will change many individual’s minds on this topic, though there is solid evidence that Trump has encouraged racism and has benefited politically from it. First, Donald Trump’s support in the 2016 campaign was clearly driven by racism, sexism, and xenophobia. While some viewers have explained Trump’s success as a result of economic anxiety, the demonstrated data tells that anti-immigrant sentiment, racism, and sexism are much more strongly related to support for Trump. Trump’s much-discussed vote advantage with non-college-educated whites is misleading; when accounting for racism and sexism, the education gap among whites in the 2016 election returns to the typical levels of previous elections since 2000. Trump did not do especially well with non-college-educated whites, compared to other Republications. He did especially well with white people express sexist views about women and who deny racism exists. Even more alarmingly, there is a clear correlation between Trump campaign events and incidents of prejudiced violence. Data show that since Trump’s election there have been anomalous spikes in the hate crimes concentrated in areas where Trump won by larger margins. It was the second-largest uptick in hate crimes in the 25 years for which data is available; second only the spike after September 11, 2001. Though hate crimes are typically most frequent in the summer, in 2016 they peaked in the fourth quarter (October-December). This new, higher rate of hate crimes continued throughout 2017.

The association between Trump and hate crimes is not limited to the election itself. Another study, based on data collected by the Anti-Defamation League, shows that hosted a Trump campaign rally in 2016 saw hate crime rates more than double compared to similar countries that did not host a rally. The data analysis discussed above has centered on correlation; they are suggestive of a link between Trump and racist attitudes and attitudes and racist attitudes and behavior but do not act. As TONI MORRISON said;

“There is no such thing as race. None, There is just a human race—scientifically, anthropologically.”

So we should treat each other as a human not as rich, poor, white or black. Throughout the country’s history, the hallmarks of American democracy—opportunity, freedom, and prosperity—have been largely reserved for white people through the intentional exclusion and oppression of people of color. The deep racial and ethnic inequities that exist today are a direct result of structural racism: the historical and contemporary policies, practices, and norms that create and maintain white supremacy. At the Urban Institute, we examine how structural racism continues to disproportionately segregate communities of color from access to opportunity and upward mobility by making it more difficult for people of color to secure quality education, jobs, housing, healthcare, and equal treatment in the criminal justice system. For decades, many researchers have called attention to the role of race and racism in public as well as institutions and offered evidence-based solutions for how to address these inequities. Our scholars will play a crucial role as we continue to elevate the public discourse around race and racism. Racism, xenophobia, and intolerance are problems preventable in all societies. But every day, each and every one of us can stand up against racial discrimination and intolerance attitudes. Please be a kind human. As RAKtivist said:

“Kindness is spreading sunshine into other people’s lives regardless of the weather “

It’s not just about America or Yemen; there is not only famine and racism we also have criteria to say well or badly based on religion. A state like a Palestine which is still not considered a free country, back in 2016 people started saying that Palestine has been removed from Google maps but the reality is it was never mentioned on the Google maps. In the year 2018, about 250000 people had signed a petition to help Palestinians for independence but no action is taken to date. About 137 countries accepted that Palestine should be a free state but nobody wants to do that. If we talk about the origin of the conflict then it can be traced back to Jewish immigration and sectarian conflict in Mandatory Palestine between Jews and Arabs. It has been referred to as the world’s “most intractable conflict” with the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip reaching 53 years. And still, that’s not all there are some more countries which are under religious discrimination such as BURMA where Muslims has been killed like insects and animals their houses were burnt along with their innocent children, there was nobody literally anyone who listened to them or raised voice for them until 288 villages were brutally destroyed. And when the videos of their violence were leaked on media they said it’s just a conflict between tribes there is no religious discrimination but there was! I am not taking the side of any religion but I am trying to say where were our humanists when the educational institutes were brunt along with their students, where thousands of mothers were trying to escape in water and forest to protect their innocent children when dreams and hopes were murdered and the happiness was killed when the light of happiness was covered with the darkness of blood and there was no body to stop these kinds of violence. And that’s not it, there is a huge list of countries under conflict such as: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Libya, Persian Gulf, Iran, North Korea, Nagora-Karabakh and most important Syrian civil war.

We all say we should, we will when we have some people to stand with us but they will stand with us if we have some strength to stay on for those people who need us who want our help. Please try to contribute to light up the candle yours and then people will stand with you when you have that strength to light up the world with happiness, open heart, acceptance, and yes as a human. Just show gratitude, a simple thank you, a note or even a smile will go a long way, as people strive to fit more and more in each 24-hour day. Show gratitude to anyone who demonstrates humanity to you and that includes your associates too. because;

“Do things for people not because of who they are or what they do in return, but because of who you are”

 

                                                                                                                             ~arshima_gul