THE CIVILIAN CRISIS

Follow us:WhatsappFacebookTwitterTelegram.cls-1{fill:#4d4d4d;}.cls-2{fill:#fff;}Google NewsDelhi, Baghdad, Mumbai, Gaza, Varanasi, London, Beirut, Srinagar, New York, Madrid, Bali, Colombo, Kabul... no this is not a list of random cities across the world. Neither are these cities signatory to an international pact. Nor is it the obvious terrorism that brings them together.

The one thing that brings these cities from across the world under one list is 'Civilian Casualty'. The death of an innocent man... whether American, Indian, Sri Lankan, Indonesian, Spanish or British.

Thousands of Americans died in the 9/11-terror attack. Just about as many innocent Iraqis were killed in the war that followed.

Whether its terror attack or countering terrorism, it's the common man who is dying... dying an involuntary death... for a cause he does not believe in... for a wrong he did not do... in a war he did not start... in a bomb he did not plant... and yet he dies this death.

I want to live free. But whom should I beg before, for my life, my freedom! The terrorists or the governments? From where I'm looking at, one's saviour is another's attacker.

Who divides me? What divides me? The atlas... the globe... the maps... your religion... my colour? I refuse to bow before these lines of ink scratched across the earth, the paper polices and the round table rattle! Our governments write diplomacy and war plans with one pen and one ulterior motive, power for self! And this quest for personal power is the common ground between the government and the terrorists. And its humanity that's suffering and dying in the remaining 'no man's land'.

As one rightly said, borders are scratched across the hearts of men, by a calm judicial pen. And when the borders bleed, I watch with dread... the lines of ink across the map turn red.

Today I wake up to an uncertainty, breathe fear, sense agony, hear helpless screams, sleep with trauma and dream death. I'm living in terror!

Peace I fear has no takers today. It has been orphaned by some and abandoned by others. Ironically peace is dying a violent death today.

A child dies in Baghdad bombings... a man dead in 9/11 terror attacks... a lady killed in the Srinagar grenade blast... a family is wiped off......

Bombs, smoke, debris, the crimson of blood is not how I painted my perfect world when I was young. Lets pause for two minutes in this mindless violence. For how long will we run after each other and then run away from each other? Its time we stop playing games with each other. We owe this to ourselves... we owe this to the coming generation.

Lets heal the world and give peace a chance. Let the change begin from you... let the winds blow away the pain and the waters dissolve our differences.

I dream... we wake up to the golden sun and sleep with the silvery moon... seek shelter under the azure sky... run hand in hand fearlessly from the Prairie's to the Sahara... the Alps to the Himalayas... the Pacific to the Arabic... my dream... your dream... our dream... the COMMON DREAM!
first published:July 19, 2006, 13:41 ISTlast updated:July 19, 2006, 13:41 IST
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