If anyone needs to change, it's us
I had been to many village households in the last three months. They were mostly poor people. I expected them to ask for financial help but not one family asked for help from me. Rather, they made me feel welcomed whenever I visited. The level of hospitality is unbelievable. They have no guarantee whether they would have enough food to feed their families the next day, but yet they want to feed any guest who comes to their house.
There are people of different religious beliefs living in the same area. I saw Muslims cooking to feed kids of their Hindu neighbours because the Hindu couple couldn't return home that day due to some emergency.
So much harmony, so much mutual understanding at the micro level; then why does it look like Bangladesh is going towards disaster at the macro level?
Let's bring politics into the equation! Whereas big business tycoons are mad at the politicians for making them lose some millions due to the strikes, blockades and violence on the streets, many village people are struggling for each meal of the day. Most of these people have no fixed monthly earning so they survive on their daily earnings. Thanks to the blockades and strikes the farmers are not able to take their crops to the designated markets, so they are selling them off at zero profit prices at the local market. Poor people like hawkers, rickshaw pullers, CNG drivers in urban areas cannot work due to the risk of losing their life on the streets.
So, when our politicians are busy playing with their egos and we are busy crying over our canceled lunches or the newly assigned make-up classes at universities, a large chunk of Bangladesh's population is sleeping hungry!
Am I blaming the politicians, like everyone else?
No! People keep blaming politicians and political parties, but the reality is that political parties are made up of people and citizens. Some of them are our parents, our siblings or may be our kids!
So, if the members of these political parties do not love Bangladesh it's not them alone who are to be blamed. We are to be blamed too! We failed to make our very own family members love their motherland.
Like many others of my generation, I hope and dream that someday this blame game will come to an end and we as a nation will stand together opposing every single individual who plays power monopoly with our motherland. It's high time we realise the fact that none of these political parties are as strong as all of us, “the Bangladeshis,” put together!
The writer is a Young Professional at BRAC and One Young World Ambassador - Bangladesh.
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