Govt. is not our only enemy, as media would like us to believe

08 February, 2013

A whistle blower, a green cadre and the convener of the Action Council, founded against the sand lobby, Thaiparambil Shibu Manuel (40), hailing from Eloor Kochin, was beaten almost to death by a group of goondas to settle their scores, as Shibu, of late, has been making a strong stand off against the sand mafia operating on the river Periyar.

The gang wreck havoc in the neighbourhood and gate-crashed into Shibu’s house and fractured both the legs of the activist, and the latter’s attempt to protect his brother’s 10-year-old boy from being beaten left both of them injured, Shibu with a fractured hand too.

This is not an isolated case that happened at the fag end of south India; rather there are countless such cases being reported from across the nation. The media prey on such incidents and run after more and more. For instance, the sand mafia’s war against a green cadre was reported in the 7th page of a leading national daily and many dailies did not find space to report it. One more Shibu thus goes unsung.

The media are filled with stories of political bickering, scandals, power sharing and corporate appeasing. And most of them make readers and viewers feel that the only worry in this country is the government and the ultimate aim of media is to journalize and videograph the vile and virtuous of the political cause.

- Tomorrow, no, there is nothing called tomorrow. It is all about making today meaningful.

- Social activism and civic responsibility, they are arch enemies and need to be eliminated.

- Rivers, trees, hillocks, wetlands, valleys, rains, sand dunes, winds and water, they all come free, and therefore it is futile worrying about them.

It is going to be too late. It is going to be too tough for all the ones come after us, tougher than what it is for Mr. Shibu. It is going to be irredeemable and irreversible if things are allowed to continue like this. The river Periyar is just a case.

Any aggression against our ecology is going to sing out the most agonizing dirge of the whole world, and any reluctance to react to such atrocities is a sign of our insensitivity, and any willful attempt to cover up such cases, either by the media or by money or men in power is nothing, but a gruesome behavior.

Our posterity is going to be indebted more to a miniscule of population constituted by a Shibu Manuel here, a Mehta Parker there or an anonymous humanist elsewhere than to a callous mass that gnaws on the innards of the ecosystem.

The criminal insensitivity to what is not ours is the hallmark of this generation and we all read and disregard, watch and ignore, listen to and abandon all things that are not going to affect us today. Yesterday has gone, today is here and what is always coming up is tomorrow. What do we keep for our posterity: science without conscience? Is it a development philosophy without feelings? Or, it is a landscape without energy, resources, and a populace with scant respect and regard for what is not ours?