“Yes we can” if we think that we could catch up with the rest of the world. In order to do so, first we have to get ‘Real’ with ourselves. We have to accept and admit our failures and weaknesses and set our strength and potential aside and hence set ourselves free from the delusion that “we are great” when we are not. The truth is that the world has progressed far ahead whilst we were being victimized by the corrupted lords ever since they began. If we really want to accomplish more and be a part of the global community then we have to start from the grass root level and learn how much the world has progressed while we were being ignorant and proud, sufficed in our small Naga world.
Modern Science has achieved remarkable feats in many fields. Genetic cloning of a sheep has been successful and has opened the door for human cloning. Teleportation of a subatomic particle has been made possible (disintegrating the particle from point A and reassembling a new particle in point B) by a team of Chinese scientists. NASA’s attempt to search for intelligent life in the universe has intrigued the possibility of humans entering into a galactic civilization in the coming future. The world has progressed much ahead preparing for the future whereas let us see what Nagaland has accomplished so far. There are many Range Rovers, luxurious SUVs and fancy cars like Mercedes, Honda city, sports car etc. owned by the MLAs and the bureaucrats. We see them driving the new cars in our Two Lane (equivalent to the rural Assam roads) pot holed roads before the cars even get into commercial advertisement in the national TV channels. The humongous palatial houses and real estates, multi-complex and their private enterprises partnered with the non locals so that their exploitation of the public funds doesn’t get exposed by the Nagas. These are the accomplishments of the few Nagas that could be perhaps credited to as the only achievements of the state thanks to the non usage of the public funds for development.
There are many talented youths in our society today, ready to create waves should the platform be provided to them. But because of corruption the reality is that there is nothing (not a single damn thing aside from the overrated govt. jobs) for the Nagas to earn their livelihood and contribute to the State’s economy. All our talents and potentials are going to waste (while we are young) because they decided to buy more cars and mansions to show ‘off’ to our own Nagas instead of developing Nagaland and showing it ‘off’ to the rest of the world.
The reason why we can catch up with the world is because from a scientific rational approach, the Nagas are unique and has potential to accomplish more. Our weakness has become our greatest advantage to catch up with the modern world. Here’s why. We were half naked even in the turn of the 19th and 20th century prior to the arrival of the westerners. We didn’t have our own script and language which is why we use ‘English’ script and language to communicate and learn about things. Developed Asian countries like Japan and South Korea has astonished the western world by coming out of their traditional society during the turn of the 20th century and over a short period of time, has accomplished more than them in some fields, technologically and economically. But since they still focus on their own scripts and languages in schools, their students find it hard to interpret their knowledge in the global tongue, ‘English’. This is one of their weaknesses for the sake of preserving their culture.
The point why ‘English’ is important is because it is a rich language with many words and vocabularies that has meaning and sense attached to it. And unless we know about the meaning of the word we don’t understand the concept behind it regarding life itself. For example in our Naga dialects there is no word for “Psychology, Quantum Mechanics, Worm holes, Tachyon particles etc.”, each with meaning about life inscribed to it but since it is not in our dialect (dictionary) we don’t know that such concepts exists in life. And in reality many more concepts and facts exists in life which is not in the Naga and Asian vocabulary which is why we don’t know about it but it is there though unbeknownst to us.
Thus since we have instilled ‘English’ in our academics, we have more potential to achieve greater heights than our fellow Asian counterparts.
The other thing that could help us in rapidly developing our State is our natural resources. Maybe in the next 20 years or more, the UN could ban the use of petroleum products (due to excess pollution and generation of ‘green house’ gases) because of ‘global warming’ and the rest of the world is already on the verge of exhausting their resources whilst ours remains untouched. We have the advantage of exploiting our resources to a point where we would have completely developed Nagaland and then depending less on our resources, keeping the world Green.
Should we want to join the global community then it is time to redefine our perspectives about life and be more rational and technical so that we could achieve great momentum and change our future. As long as we are a part of the ignorant system that binds our fate then there is no Hope for the Nagas except endangering our society by taking bold irrational (not well thought up) steps. Time brings change in the global concept of life but it is up to us to notice it and use it or ignore it and miss it.
