The Story of ‘others’

I have been hearing stories of racism, factionalism, ethnic cleansing, identity issues and so on, especially in the recent times. I have always said, in my casual discussions with friends, that the powerful make the rules that benefit themselves, not the ‘others.’ It’s the people in power that have written history.

Who are the others?

If we look at the history of Israel, they were in exile in Egypt for 400 years. The Israelites worked hard for the Egyptian Pharoahs (rulers). This is perhaps the oldest recorded history of ‘others’ who were forced to hard labour because the ‘ruling party’ wanted their lives to be easy. Next, from 586-538 BC, they were in exile in Babylon. The Babylonian king brought the best Jews to work for his kingdom. The Israelites again, were the ‘others.’

During the British imperialism, the colonial people worked for the mighty Britons. All big monuments and historical buildings were built with the help of these poor labourers, the colonial cousins. Here too, the rulers life was made easy by the ‘others.’

The 16th century European explorers exploited the natives all over the world. They had the power and money so they could use the ‘others’ to make their life easy.

In the present day world, so called the post-modern world, countries in the west hire immigrant workers in their own terms and make them work for their benefit. The ‘others’ are just there to make life easy for them. When the population of the hiring country starts increasing, they want to put a stop to immigrants coming in. They have already given citizenships to millions who from others have become them. What do they do now?

This world has seen the powerful make use of the powerless. When the work is done, they want the ‘others’ to go away or disappear. And then there’s this talk of humanity. Where’s humanity in this? All big words like equality, liberty, brotherhood of man, etc. have no meaning at all. There will always be us Vs them or we Vs others and that’s where the conflict starts. We want the ‘others’ just to make our life easy. Period.

Judging Choir Competition

I came to judge an inter-church competition at Don Bosco. It’s organised by a youth group and it’s an annual affair. The unique thing about this was that no instruments are played. It’s purely vocal presentations. That I found quite interesting.

8 different groups took the stage and presented their songs. At least two choir groups were noteworthy. They had the right balance of harmony, clarity or words, dynamics and vocal strength.

It’s nice to know that so many young people are into choir singing. Singing harmony parts isn’t easy but it really makes the song come alive. I am glad to start the year with singing and celebration.

It’s always tough to judge a competition and sometimes find it unfair too. The group I had marked the best won the first position. Am glad I was fair that way.

Mass Communication

Yesterday, I got a call from a career counseling center and I was told that they are organising a counselling session for students of my daughter’s school. I responded saying my child has already decided what she wants to do after high school, and that’s music. I asked if they could help my child with music education. The telecaller said they don’t have that option but others like management, finance, etc. As they always insist further, she asked me if my child was interested in Mass Communication.

I then asked her whether music is a medium of mass communication. She said yes. She hung up after I told her that music is the best medium for mass communication. Isn’t it? Everyone understands the language of music.

Careers are decided by the industry and industries are run by money. When the focus becomes money, young people are disillusioned. Career counselors should ask what children want to do and not what career pays them well.