On Rights

Med School STILL rocks.

=D

Guess where i am, at 7 o'clock on a wednesday morning! I'm in histopathology lab! Thats right, a lab with a big medical word next to it! Its awesome, i tell you. Just awesome.
So anyway, today is my clinical visit, so i'm dressed very nicely in my black slacks, pink shirt, and pink tie. Talk about suicidal. I've got a feeling that i'm gonna be teased a bit today.
But i've got my labcoat too, and i tell you, nothing feels better than wearing a lab coat. Today, i can REALLY pretend to be a doctor.

=D

So anyway, have you opened up the news paper recently? Gone passed the comics and sports (yes, i know, its hard to think about anything right now other than Manchester United 3, Liverpool 0, but do try!) and taken a peek at the dramas showing on the world stage? Well, if you have, then you'll know that the paper reads like a tragedy, worthy of shakespeare himself!

Seriously, look at it. The entire world is coming apart at the seams. Terrorism, religious injustices, US elections, all sorts of terrible, dangerous things are going on. Country shapes up against country, government against government, radical islamists against... well, against just about everyone.

One particular article especially gauled me. Some indonesia ulama (or was it a dude invovled in the Bali bombing? cant quite recall) called the bali bombers heroes. And encouraged more young muslims to aspire to matyrdom. Aspire to killing yourself. Bastard.

All in all, malaysian newspapers these days arent fun reading (unless you enjoy blatantly biased political news). Something is wrong somewhere, because people just arent getting along, and nothing is getting better.

So i started pondering over it. I figured since one day i'm gonna rule the world, it was a good idea to figure out all its problems. SO i pondered.

I realised one interesting thing most people overlook. Take an example, 'crimes' agaisnt islam, for instance. Those dutch cartoons (thank you for standing up for free speech, and publishing them again!). It was met with INTENSE protestation, people took to the streets with weapons and words, death threats ran rampant. There was no small amount of outrage from certain areas, and demands for apologies and punishments. Mostly punishments.

But why all the ruckus? I'll tell you why. Its because people love their religion. Its only normal. But some love it so much, they have the notion that no one can offend it, that its their RIGHT to see their religion protected from what they see as attacks.

Now this took back to my childhood days (oh, so long ago!). When i was in kelantan, i didnt have much of a social life (its kelantan, people. If you havent lived there, you dont know), so i turned to the only other place i had: Cyberspace. I had quite the rollicking internet life, amidst all the porn and games (no blogs back then, sadly). So naturally i spent a perfectly reasonable amount of time online (about 25 hours a day).

My father, however, decided to come between me and my newfound life. I used to have to beg him to let me stay on for extended periods of time (when i say extended, i mean EXTENDED!!!!!), and he only gave me about two hours, tops.

I was outraged. Who was he to come between me and my close friends whom i actually knew absolutely nothing about? It was sacrilege! I expressed my righteous anger at his interfering ways, and ended up with no internet time at all.
Good times!
=D

But anyway, before he sent me to my room to rot, he used to tell me 'Isuru, dont think it's your right to use the internet. You dont have any rights in this world, only privileges other people give you. And with these privileges come responsibility.'

Back then, naturally,i thought, 'what the hell are you talking about, man! I WANNA USE THE INTERNET!!!!'. And i didnt really pay attention to what he said.

But now in hindsight, thinking about the world problems, i realised that what he said applied not only to me, but to nearly every conflict everywhere. I didnt have the right to use the internet, so accordingly, i had no right to be angry about my limited use. But in his kindness, my pops gave me the privilege of internet use, something i ought to have been grateful for. But with that privilege came reponsibilities, not to abuse the net or get addicted to it.

Apply that to the sadly common world situation i used as an example. The outraged people really have to right to be angry, because its not their right that everything published or done in the world should conform to their expectations and beliefs. But the publishers of the cartoons should know better, and give those people a privilege, by not publishing the cartoons. Its an act of kindness, and respect. But with that privilege, the people also have a responsibility NOT to act in extreme ways, and in turn respect the freedom of other people.

If things worked that way, the world would be a very very different place.

There's one more good reason to remember that everything you have in the world isnt your right, but infact you privilege. When you have the 'right' to something, and its taken away, you often act in anger, anger which is made all the more dangerous by the fact that you believe it to be righteous. But if you remember that everything is infact a privilege, you'd appreciate what you have more, and keep in line with the responsibilites fallen to you so as to keep whatever privileges you have.

I really hope you understood what i said, because i've got a feeling that if we want to change things so that the situations around the world all start improving, we're all gonna have to adopt this kind of attitude. Its highly unlikely, but hey, i can dream.
=D

In conclusion, i'd like to point out one very very important fact. My dad's a man of great wisdom. This post belongs to him.



Dont tell him i said that. =D