A nation on steroids
BUY One, Get One Free: the advertisement pitch that I heard in the 'Qurbanir Haat'. If one bought a cow for 'x' amount, he or she was given another one of a smaller size. If one bought a camel, the purchaser was given a refrigerator. In Baridhara, a devout Muslim who invested Taka 1.75 lac was given a cell phone. And tell you what, the cows were unimaginably bigger than before. Many of these poor animals had been given steroids and had suddenly grown in size, just to entice the size-hungry buyers. The result has also been disastrous. Simple people like your columnist have stayed away from buying 'big' cows.
Unfortunately this nation also suffers from political and social excesses. Otherwise, how can an extremely influential statesman suddenly lose his sanity unless he or she lives off an overdose of ego? What contributes to a politician suddenly growing muscles overnight and knocking off any opposition in the ring? The answer lies in the fact of our nation perennially being on social, cultural, financial and political steroids. Yet, during application of the drug, little do we realize that steroids serve for a short-term and that a nation cannot afford to be put on steroids for life.
Ironically, every year we have been witnessing outstanding stats in our education sector while simultaneously many have been wondering about the quality of the achievement label of GPA 5.The results of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations-2014 under ten education boards announced a pass rate of 78.33 percent compared to last year's figure of 74.30 percent. This year, 70602 students achieved the highest grade of GPA-5 while in 2013, 58197 students made it to the club of GPA-5. True, it feels great to see students making 'V' signs and being photographed and interviewed for media, but at the end of the game, how many of them really deserve to go for higher education? How many can really withstand real competition and prove their worth? The numbers would be embarrassingly low. Till date, your columnist finds it extremely challenging to recruit eligible candidates for any real life corporate position. Recent news will substantiate general fears of the citizen. Only two applicants passed the tests to enrol at Dhaka University's Department of English this year. As a result, the admission committee has decided to favour suspending the critical admission requirements, which disqualifies aspiring university students from enrolling. It seems as though the nation is in a hurry to look educated without truly being so.
The need to simply 'look' good without actually qualifying for it is a dangerous practice. Abnormally healthy steroid-fed animals, unusually fresh-looking yet formalin-injected vegetables, excessively power-driven loose-mouthed politicians, and above all, an artificially inflated and overrated generation of GPA 5 holders don't do justice to a nation that needs the Youth to steer it to a safe and shining shore.
The world today is filled with glorious chapters being authored by the Youth…
On 16 June 1976, in Soweto, 10, 000 students were mobilized by the South African Students Movement's Action Committee and peacefully marched protesting against the government. While police fired on the peaceful students, international community was repulsed by the atrocity. The uprising spread to the whole of South Africa. The revolution in Egypt was also more of a youth uprising which resembles the democratic demands of Dr Martin L. King, Jr.
On the 19th of September 2014, in Scotland even 16 year-olds voted in the referendum on independence. Scotland's independence bid was almost as real as it could get…with the youth pushing the separation edge. “Better Together” was dangerously close to collapsing, but the 'No' vote actually just put an end to David Cameron's rounds of nightmares. The ones who saved the tie were mostly a section of mature citizens while the ones desiring the divorce were young and eager for meaningful change.
It's always the youth testing the limits of a nation. A recent development in Asia testifies this. The Occupy Central movement in Hong Kong is today being led by the youth. It is difficult to imagine restlessness in a city that breathes and thrives in corporate efficiency. Yet the young, bold and the beautiful have taken to the streets, just to press for a free and fair election in electing their representative in 2017, which is still 3 years away. Apart from the Occupy movement, another protest led by the student protest group called Scholarism was started by 17-year-old Joshua Wong—who protested against pro-party patriotic education in Hong Kong public schools—which culminated in a boycott of classes eventually leading to a storming of government headquarters. This dissent is a forceful reminder of the Tiananmen protests in 1989. After that, this is the single-most biggest mass movement on Chinese soil with direct political connotations. One must also remind the readers that China observes a Youth Day ever since the 4th of May 1949. So, even China has to subscribe to the spirit of youth when it comes to new claims on democracy.
A couple of moons ago, we had youth strumming their chords in Shahbag. Powerful people from both position and opposition reached them, split them into a few pieces and packed the rebellion off to a place from where there was no safe return. Reality is that while the seventeen-year old Pakistani child education activist Malala shares the peace prize with an Indian child rights campaigner, Kailash Satyarthi, it's been proposed that the marriageable age for females be taken down from 18 to 16. Reality is that at a time when the world is busy celebrating youth, the nation is busy awarding Golden GPA 5 to kids who are possibly at their farthest from receiving a golden education. At a time when we should be nurturing the Young, Tanvir Ahmed Toki, who would have turned 18 last week, paid the price of political rivalry and was brutally murdered. In our land, we kill instead of nurture; we spoil instead of mentor; we hunt instead of sustain; we abandon in place of embrace…
All of this needs to change… if 71% of Bangladeshis truly believe (according to the Pew Research Center) that this is the land where their children are destined to ben better off living in. More faith needs to be restored in governance and more work needs to go into building the dreamland for generations to follow.
The writer is Managing Director, Mohammadi Group.
Comments