Came across this piece on Kevin Carter, a Pulitzer Prize winner, for his heart-rending photograph of a famine-stricken Sudanese girl. If the girl's destiny is horrifying, Kevin's was even more. He had reportedly committed suicide, three weeks after winning the Pulitzer Prize, due to depression. More on this here...
http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/odds_and_oddities/ultimate_in_unfair.htmThe article speaks about Kevin driving away after taking the photograph. Why ? If he was really touched by the scene, he should've picked her up in his truck, and should've driven her to the kilometer-away relief camp, to which she was crawling away to. That makes me doubt his intentions - "to show what the world was overlooking" - and makes me believe that he was just after mortal accolades. Or could be that he was so weak-hearted to tend to a fellow being in agony. The article also mentions about him smoking away and crying to get over the horrors of this scene. Maybe the horror was too much to digest and put the daylight out of him. Beyond sentiments about his prize-winning picture and immediate death, what pains me most is his inability to relieve someone of their pain. While the picture made a great deal of shortlived difference to the dog-eat-dog corporate world, a moment of care would've made a world of difference to the shortlived destiny of the dying child, which in my opinion, counts more than a universal plaudit.
Speaking of a dog-eat-dog world, here's one from Gujarat, which puts me out of sleep everytime I think about it.
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=73907The photograph is iconic of the Indian administration, where the superiors ride over their subordinates' shoulders, literally and figuratively. The country that had seen selfless individuals aplenty, is now a dumb witness to such inhuman treatment. Mr. Kumaraswamy is seen flaunting his shades and his too-precious-to-be-wet uniforms, while a helpless subordinate carries him on his shoulders, across the flooding waters. Maybe he was clueless about what "fellow being" actually stood for. He - I would prefer adressing this moron with the pronoun "it" - misconstrued it to be '"fell low being", I guess. Whatever strata one might be in, can't they understand that all earthlings are created equal. Human rights activists talk at length about atrocities in illiterate pockets of the country, but a Joint Commissioner of Police riding on a constable as if the latter were a "two-legged beast-of-burden" derives little condemnation. Whatever comes out of the ensuing inquiry on this controversy, it pains me to think that a human could be so heartless as to treat a fellow being with such insenstivity and total oblivion to one's human rights.
The world's not just about such scattered fragments of negativity, and there's still hope for humans to do justice to their elevated altar on the evolution chart. I've never been a witness to a beast ordering another to carry it, but, from the above incident, been an unfortunate, indirect witness to a human equivalent of a beast. That piece should've been titled "Pity and the Beast", needless to mention what "Pity" and "Beast" stand for.
Now to the hope part, three Kashmiri women are on track for the Nobel Peace Prize, for their humanitarian service to the terrorism-plagued regions' women. People like these make me wipe off haunting memories of the earlier "Kumaraswamy" incident.
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=50414These women are on the other end of where Carter is in my opinion. That is, Carter, in my opinion, did something to draw accolades while he did nothing for the dying child, whereas, these women have brought about hope into the lives of scores of Kashmiris, and that deserves a worldwide standing ovation. Hats off, ladies , because you make me proud to be an Indian, and also a human.
As I'm penning this, the world might be growing on insentivity and humanity, equally, but let me hope to make at least one reader ( yes, that's you ) think outside the selfish box, and open their eyes, limbs and heart to fellow beings in need. It starts with me and you are next in line. Love your fellow beings as thyself.
Deeply concerned,
Arun
