Slavery and bondage exists in today’s world as much as it did in the centuries gone by, prevalent in every country sans exception. Whether we speak of European women being trafficked as sex slaves, or south east Asian children shipped in cargo boxes, or Indian boys kidnapped to be camel jockeys for rich sheikhs… whether we speak about our own tendencies to exhibit arrogance and superiority over those not as privileged as ourselves … whether we speak about the frightening use of the wand of power brandished by governments over subjects or helpless victims… separated only by degrees of pain, it is in fact a manifestation of the need to enslave through humiliation.
The fact that we may have progressed in other ways or personally survived the blows of an ugly fate doesn’t negate the greater fact of the existence of evil in society that continues to insult not just the victims, but everyone who believes in a fair and free world in the 21st century. It is not only demeaning for those who fall prey but even more so for those who don’t, simply because such an unthinkable breach of human conduct prevails with our silence… a silence which can be misconstrued as a sign of cowardice at best and consent at worst.
We are apt at becoming aware of an issue and then lauding our own awareness as if that is an end in itself. But no, that is a mere beginning. Our comfort zone has to expand from our living rooms to the centre of the field where the real play is. We cannot any longer afford to feel at ease with the way things are, and for every finger that we point at the perpetrators of these heinous crimes, there are three fingers that point back at us.
Our life itself is the greatest of weapons to wipe out the black spots on the face of humanity. Each can use the role that has been prescribed for this life, and milk it to the last drop for the good of the world, the betterment of the human race. Whether it is by directly confronting the devil in its human garb or by conscious prayer… externally by rooting out evil or internally weeding out weaknesses… all of this effort will lead to the minimalist of outcomes – that of change. It is not for us to measure the worth of this ‘change’ or to weigh how much good has come about and how much evil has been eliminated; it is simply our unstated duty to erase, by whichever means we can, any form that may debase the value and dignity of human life.
Embrace your weapon then for this is the one war which is worth fighting for.
