What are we doing for peace?

Friday morning, I took Gulf News from my doorstep with a pleasant mindset as I have time to read the paper at ease. The very first page of the paper and then leading on the inside pages made me quite disturbed. The picture and news of a family followed by many others with their belongings, fleeing away from their country of Syria to be labelled as refugees for no fault of their own really haunted me! First of all, I thanked God for giving us this great place to live. At the same moment, I was thinking of the innocent people who are the victims of the wrong deeds of a few people who think only of their own prospects.

Human life is precious. The most important aspect of life on Earth is to live and let others live peacefully. The present scenario across the globe in many countries is pulling everyone towards the Stone Age. Every dead body on a war site has stories of tears and broken dreams! Syria, Palestine, Pakistan, Afghanistan, France, India, US and the list is never ending! The killing of humans by humans keeps continuing mercilessly. The evil forces with personal, vested and unethical interests rule the world. The concept of ‘let the world live in peace’ is getting shattered. Nobody respects the rights of others to live. The problem of refugees is worsening day-by-day. Nations spend a lion’s share of finance to safeguard their boundaries from neighbouring nations, but the same could have been utilised for the betterment of the countrymen. Poverty and poor living conditions of people in India and Pakistan can easily vanish by utilising the money both countries spend for buying weapons and protecting their boundaries. Every day the rulers of both the countries create heartache for the families from where their young sons are sent for their military services. The rulers enjoy all the materialistic comforts, whereas the people lose their dreams.

The irony to this is that we celebrated Human Rights Day last week. Do we respect human rights? Do we raise our concerns on the refugee issues across the globe? Let’s all teach our children tolerance and empathy. Let’s stand for peace because your worry is mine, too.

- The reader is a headmaster at a school based in Sharjah.