Kuolachalie Seyie
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]n illustration of European culture of patriotism or civic sense is the highly educated barber, Mr. John Watt of Scandinavia. Though he had other options in life, like taking up teaching in universities, he chose to be a barber, because through this profession he is able to contribute more tax towards the exchequer. He pays approx. Rs. 26, 32, 500/- p. a. to his state. In the Holy Bible, one of the expressions of patriotism is that of Queen Esther who said ‘If I perish I perish’ and went to the King and saved the lives of all the Jews throughout the country in Esther 4:16, showing God fearing Jewish patriotism. Patriotism calls for readiness to sacrifice for love of the people and one’s country. Esther of long ago and John Watt of today showed an excellent patriotic response to such a call and became the backbone of their respective nations. It is easy to say “I love my people and country” but its practice takes courage and sacrifice which is not to be measured by one’s status. Today we are in dire need of patriots like Queen Esther and John Watt to heal our land from all evils. When we have that kind of a commitment, creating a peaceful, clean and habitable land for ourselves should not be impossible, but if we act selfishly then everything will go wrong, in whatever we say or do. Hypocrisy is the greatest crime of the day.1. Definitions
What really is patriotism and civic sense? The word patriotism is derived from the Latin word ‘patriota’ which means fellow countryman. The act of a person defending his country’s freedom or right or strongly supporting his people and preparedness to defend it at all cost is patriotism. Civic sense on the other hand is the act of a person, taking an active interest in the community’s needs and affairs of a town or a city, having civic pride by performing his duties to the best of his ability. It is also an ethic which needs to be followed in public.
2. What is inherently wrong with us?
Both patriotism and civic sense is that sense of an individual which makes him a civilized, loving and caring citizen of a country. As far as our normal understanding is concerned, it is felt that people from educated and belonging to the upper strata are more or less quite civilized possessing patriotism and civic sense. This may be true in advanced countries but, so far as India is concerned, we are shocked to see, what is inherently wrong with us is that we, no matter which state and what background we belong to, are lacking in patriotism and civic sense. Sad but true. Drastic and radical changes are needed, if we have to live with dignity and mutual respect.
3. India dirty, dirty, cheating, cheating; why?
Lack of patriotism and civic sense is not far to seek, we find it all pervading, no matter which city or town we go, including our state capital, Kohima. In our neighborhood, in the colony, on the road, in the office, in a theatre, in a public toilet or in a restaurant and all, we have tell tale signs of unpatriotic nature, incivility and an absence of civic sense. Over and above as per the report of WHO, there are as many as 665 millions of poor Indians who have to defecate in the open every day. These people completely lose self respect, dignity and civility from their practice, and spread diseases all over the land. As such they demean the human race otherwise proclaimed to have superior intellect over every other living creature. Age old discrimination based on Hindu caste system denies dignity of labour. That is why Indians suffer comments like “Oh! India Dirty, Dirty, Cheating, Cheating” made to me and my wife abroad by a foreigner, when he discovered that we were from India, out of his concern for India.
4. Are we not indirectly eating excreta?
Studies suggest that one gram of faeces contains 1 million bacteria, 10 million viruses, 1000 parasites and 100 parasite eggs. One may comprehend how fatal it can prove for our health. Even a single household practicing open defecation (ODF) connotes that all habitants of such areas are eating excreta indirectly brought by carriers like rats, cockroaches and flies. Research shows that a fly after consuming excreta, vomits it out on the food it sits on before consuming it again.
5. Kohima; then and now
When Mokokchung can be clean, why can’t Kohima be also? What is wrong with us? Let us examine ourselves through and through and come out with practical solutions. The situation in Kohima was better off few decades ago; we were never as unpatriotic and uncivil as we are today. Why this deterioration in our civic sense today? Mind that the lovely and historic capital town Kohima is not for lackadaisical human response to pollute and degrade, as we are accountable to our future generations who would suffer the after effects of present neglect.
6. Personal prosperity goals
People today are so driven towards personal prosperity goals that patriotism and civic sense has become a low priority and its absence in a society, leads to disregard for law, values and sanitation. A person who has patriotism and high civic sense does not resort to shortcuts and unethical tactics to get his work done. The shortcuts that we practice in Nagaland today are in the group with bribery, corruption, hedonism, instant gratification, the get-rich-quick culture, violence, selfishness, lack of courteousness, random disposal of waste or politics without principle and business without conscience. The consequences are failure of our projects, disconnection and distrust amongst people, also creating distance between God and people.
7. Exemplary behavior of Chinese and Japanese
How China became position number two amongst the richest nations of the world is not because of their natural resources or size of their land but of their patriotism. Helping the Chinese economy boom by non-resident Chinese who invested all their wealth in their country of origin for love of their people and country is a good example of patriotism. While the Japanese take compulsory turns without any exceptions in cleaning their neighborhood every day as an opportunity for having enjoyable fellowship in that joint positive effort is another example of patriotism and civic sense. I remember an instance when I was in a restaurant located at a farm in Japan, and since it was in a country side a fly got inside, so the whole staff started to chase that fly until they killed it and thereafter they came to all the tables and sincerely apologised. They also would not do anything to demean their country that’s why Japan is very clean and would never eat with their bare hands, which is considered very dirty and unhygienic.
8. Do we lack “I care” attitude for our land?
In a huge contrast, it is a very common sight at Kohima to see sweet or chocolate wrappers flung out of luxurious passing cars in the middle of the road, or people awkwardly engage themselves in nose picking in public during traffic jams. Often you see supposedly civilized persons carrying dirty handkerchiefs or notice untrimmed dirty finger nails. In such a situation it is natural on a greater scale that we don’t have the needed “I care” for our land. If this is the standard of the cream of our Naga society, the less said about others the better. The reason for this unpatriotic nature and lack of civic sense is perhaps attributable to our upbringing and formative years as we never took public property seriously, and treated it as nobody’s child. Patriotism and civic sense seem to be conspicuous by their absence in our society, added by our primitive background. With this casual and careless attitude it is no wonder that the public places are all littered.
9. Patriotism and civic sense produces character
However, a person with patriotism and civic sense is a one man army. He owes his patriotism to his people, country and values. Individuals and organizations are perishable whereas patriotism and civic sense are basic codes of conduct and are everlasting as that of the Ten Commandments, such as do not steal or kill. Patriotism and civic sense produce character and character produces hope and honor. It is the sum total of integrity, honesty, ethics, conscience, loyalty, mental toughness, courage and consistency.
10. Self-centeredness and casteism
The life of a patriot speaks to his people “come lets walk together to live with honor” but when a person compromises his patriotism and values he not only loses the respect of others but most importantly he loses respect for himself. The lack of patriotism and civic sense cannot be compensated by any other quality of body or mind. A historical case in point is the attitude of high caste Indians treating Dalits, their own fellow human beings, lower than their dogs. Their dogs are free to move about their living room or bedroom while their fellow Dalit brothers cannot even set foot on their verandah. This self-centeredness and patriotism or civic sense are like darkness and light which do not go together.
11. Yesterday’s philosophy
We all know that Baba Amte was the son of a rich Brahmin landlord, a renowned law practitioner, and also vice chairman of a municipality. He had a soft heart for lepers, as such set up a leper rehabilitation centre where he taught them self-reliance. He said “I am more isolated by my own community (Brahmin) than the lepers.” This attitude towards their fellow human beings is not only the absence of true love and human values but also a lack of patriotism and civic sense. There may be a related attitude and behavior explanation as to how Graham Staines and his two sons were burnt to death for his anti-leprosy Christian mission. It is the attitude and patriotism that matters and not the size of the country or its resources. Are we living today in tomorrow’s world with yesterday’s philosophy? Enough crime has been committed. We should examine our lives carefully and transform otherwise our lives are not worth living and fulfilling to meet the purpose of life.
12. Why we Indians are segregated by other countries?
Some of the high caste Indians seems to have privilege to litter everywhere without an obligation to clean up themselves or to say thanks to the lower castes for doing their work. As a result of these habits they not only lose their character, demean the country but also are being despised by other nations. I along with my wife had a 14 day Europe Tour with another 23 very highly accomplished persons from India in 1998, organized by an International Organisation. Due to their aforesaid misbehavior, we the Indians were grouped separately in all the Five Star Hotels throughout the Tour, except the first Hotel at Heathrow in UK and when the waiters saw our Mongolian faces amongst the Indians, they often told us, “you (Mongolians) should not be here (with the Indians) your group is in the other dining hall,” pointing out to where the Europeans and other Mongolians like the Japanese were dining. On one occasion our two Indian friends were forced to clean up their toilet papers after use in one of the public toilets in UK by the toilet keeper. Why this ill treatment? They often push others at the buffet, start eating while in the queue at the buffet, take a lot of food and waste, often burped after meals and their women would pocket nuts and fruits.
13. Is Nagaland just mud and dust?
There are many indications that we the Nagas are simply copying the aforesaid attitude. Today Nagaland is labelled as “just mud and dust” it has only two seasons instead of four, they are “muddy season and dusty season” by foreigners. One lady from the UK had collected rubbish from a tourist village in Nagaland, went to England then sent it back to the tourist village Chairman with a covering letter saying that it was proper on her part to send it back to the original owner. I met two foreigner ladies married to Nagas, one of them said “I love Nagaland. I love Nagas but I hate their toilets.” The other said “When I get to the city (Kohima) I am very much worried because there is no public toilet.”
14. To build a new world we need new people
These above comments are a serious challenge to our patriotism, civic sense, civility and sanitation. Any nation’s thinking and behavior are in ruins before their cities, towns and economy are in ruins. We can plan a new society and a new world on paper or preach the same but practically we have to build with new people only. Korea was the poorest nation on earth in 1953 and has become the third richest nation in Asia and 15th in Gross Domestic Product and 12th in Purchasing Power Party (nation) of the world today with a spiritually committed movement and a slogan as “Land of prayers.” We are in need of such a spiritual movement and slogan rather than festivals after festivals with wine and meat.
15. A lifestyle of servant hood
“Dig a hole” and cover up your excrement…. Your camp must be holy; so that He will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.” Deut. 23:13 and 14. God is holy of the holiest. He wants us to be holy spiritually and physically for our own good, wherever our dwelling camp may be, must be holy so that God may not turn away from us. Great is he who serves and not the one who slumbers and eat. Our Lord and Savior Christ has given us a lifestyle of servant hood, gentleness, humility and not to litter everywhere in arrogance expecting the lower caste to clean up the mess for us. There is no low caste before our Lord.
16. No cultural indoctrination among the Nagas
Occasionally I take out my children to clean up the neighbourhood, even though it is not easy because of the horrible smell. Now the littering with bottles, plastics and rubbish is much lesser by the day. Nagas are lucky not to suffer from cultural indoctrination. As per our tradition and culture we rather boast of a sense of sharing collective responsibilities, valor, integrity and ‘dignity of labor.’ So the task of creating a habitable land for ourselves should not seem impossible to us. Shall we resolve not to rely on a culture of cheap escapism but on one inspired by a vision and a goal for a better world? We shall then march ahead so that we may have a hope of a better world and a secure future.
17. ABCC’s responsibility
Shall we resolve that we shall absolutely refrain from littering our towns, cities, and public places? The ABCC should see that patriotism, civility, civic sense and sanitation be taught in all schools, churches and homes, also the Japanese example of compulsory neighbourhood cleaning daily by rotation should be adopted in all the colonies and villages. Children are taught patriotism and civic sense early because unlike a specific skill, patriotism and civic sense is a school of thought in itself. It is a belief in love and care of public property, hygienic living, respect and love for other members of society and humane behaviour without discrimination. Mother Teresa said, ‘If everyone would clean their own doorstep, the whole world would be clean.’
18. Let’s build a great nation for ourselves
Roads and cities are not dirty because nobody cleaned it but because somebody dirtied it in the first place. Such dirt and grime are not acceptable to anybody; it exists only because everybody adds to it. If you want to live in a prosperous and healthy society and build a great nation for yourselves, inculcate patriotism and civic sense today. Let us live to earn respect and dignity through how we live and not to demean our country.
(N.B. Due to unavoidable circumstances we are unable to publish ‘Antics of a Naga Civil Servant’ by KK Sema, appearing every Friday in this space. The column will be back next week. The inconvenience is regretted.)
