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Flogging a dead society
“Pride in history, faith in future and honour in
present, they together make up the backbone of a society.”
The existence of a society as a strong, cohesive,
vibrant and welcoming unit, is determined by the values that make up its’ core.
The past gives the society its’ identity, and pride imbibed in those memories
gives strength to face the challenges that face that society in the present. In
an honorable present does find feet the faith of a bright future, else the
society knows its existence will be a struggle. But honour that most get by
birthright now in democracies, is what had to be fought and won after much
bloodshed in history. It is really sad that youth today don’t understand the
concept of honour, leave alone understanding why it is important to uphold it,
or defend it. It would thus be childish to expect them to understand, what is corroding
their honour away. Perhaps a very recent example might help to create a
starting point for a well meaning discussion.
Lets’ talk about one Mr Donal Stirling, an 80 year old
business tycoon from the United States of America, and soon to be the former
owner of “Los Angeles Clippers”, a team that plays in NBA. On 25th
April, 2014 a recorded conversation was exposed by a media outlet. Mr Stirling
could be heard in this recording, making some extremely disgraceful comments
against the black American community. Expectedly his predominantly black
American team, the “Los Angeles Clippers”, and their coach thought about
boycotting their next game, but instead chose to be a professional side, and
after registering their protest played out the game. Mr Stirling has since been
banned by the NBA for life, and has also been fined 2.5 Million USD. Seems like
the case is closed, but not for me!
For the past few months an American girl of Asian
descent, a freelance writer Ms Suey Park, has been campaigning to raise racial sensitivity.
Her online campaign “not your Asian sidekick” has been a big hit amongst people
of all races, and for good reasons. It has brought to fore the views of the
majority populace; as to how irrespective of the race, people are generally
more accepting of other races than what they might have been any time before in
history. But of course, there is that small pocket of population which still
has its’ head stuck in the sewerage mentality. And it is this pocket that
people like Mr Stirling come from, their economic status only highlighting
their actions more than if it were an ordinary person instead.
But what is it about the incident that bothers me? Why
do I still not consider the case closed?
Well, I see people going nuts over the internet; every
black, brown or yellow man fighting every white man as if they have all been
personally wronged by each one of the other group. The fact however is; Mr
Stirling’s actions would have sickened even the majority of white race, and
many had promptly and prominently condemned him. His punishment at the hands of
NBA, a quick action, bears a testimony to how intolerant today as a society we
are towards racism. But something is still not right!
What if NBA had not acted against Mr Stirling? How
would have you classified the actions of “Los Angeles Clippers” team and their
coach then? You may call it a professional response, I prefer to classify it as
“Society’s impotence”, and I will give you reasons for calling it so.
Their actions mean; a man who has money can insult you
(for whatever reason, and not just race) in your face, and you will only protest
silently, and then do the work and get paid by the same man. Remember, Mr
Stirling was sacked “after” the game. I hope every Indian reads this piece, for
this is exactly what I don’t want Indian society to ever degenerate into; that
a man can humiliate you, and you will still work for him just because you get
paid. Professionalism my foot! This is what a slave’s life used to be; the
master would abuse him, and he would suffer silently, yet work for the master
every day.
Honour is the pride you take in yourself for who you
are. You fight for your honour not because someone has hurt your ego, but
because if you won’t protect your honour, you will lose it completely and
become like a dog to a master. It wasn’t the entire white race against the entire
black race. It was a blatant disgrace by one man aimed at the entire society,
including whites, which failed to respond to it in a way that would have set an
example. Honour my dear friends, is what gives freedom and democracy to our
societies. It was honour that came with equal rights for men and women, and
then for blacks and whites.
In this case however, it was an entire society waiting
for someone else to fix the wrong, while they were happy for things to proceed
in the meantime. Imagine living in a society where your Government completely
sells you to an abusive private owner. Would you expect anyone from such a
society to stand up and fight for freedom or rights? Everyone will suffer
silently, but will be happy at the end of the day when he or she will get paid
some miserly some for their labour. Well, given the money Mr Stirling has and
makes, players only get miserly sum individually.
What they should have done is; they should have
immediately resigned from the team in the first instance, then sued the team
for the dues, and should have waited to be either picked up by other teams, or
for NBA to set the house in order after ceremonially sacking Mr Stirling as
they ultimately did. By not doing so, they have lost all their honour.
NBA’s action is correct and well meaning, but still
only an afterthought. I classify it as house-keeping, not house-safeguarding.
The proper action would have been; the entire team and coach stepping down with
immediate effect, and then NBA both sacking Mr Stirling, as well as reinstating
the entire team. Only if NBA had sacked Mr Stirling before the game, I would
have considered this protest as good enough. And the protest should have
continued in every game until Mr Stirling had formally been removed in all
capacities. “Los Angeles Clippers” needed to walk out with their honour intact.
Fatal Urge Carefree Kiss “Amanpreet Singh Rai”
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