People love to take selfies. Even the heads of the states, who represent the people, love the charm of selfies. There is nothing new about this. Yet a selfie of our head of government is being discussed everywhere. People in favour of the government party breathed a sigh of relief. Their ‘over-the-moon’ reactions on the PM’s selfie with the US President abounded in the social media. On the other hand, people who are against the governing party, initially were a bit upset, but later came out with the argument that a selfie is a simple courtesy which anyone can ask for. While the brawl between the two sides prevailed, a rarely seen harmony also surfaced. Both the parties here seemed to believe that the US is big and Bangladesh is small!
However, what did the selfie mean? Did it contain diplomatic significance? Was it really a simple courtesy? Or something else demanding our interest? We have no answer. It is entirely possible that we won’t have any in the near or far future. However, it reminded me of a smoky debate going on in a rural tea stall a couple of months back. There were two groups of people who were weaving arguments to save the face of their leaders living in the capital. They, however, reached an agreement in the end: the US is not going to give any blank cheque to the government during the next election. Yet there remains a strong likelihood that India will manage everything, given the government will row its boat away from China.
Mark Twain once said: “Most people are other people, their thoughts are someone else's opinion, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” Common people of our country sometimes look more politically conscious than the rest of the planet and we can certainly take pride in the matter. However, we have another identity we can’t be proud of at all. We are sometimes figured as the most inactive electorate among the whole world. Some assume that our government will be set up by some powerful countries and we have nothing to do here. We may accept the stealing of voting rights, sensing that the mathematics of power has been worked out earlier. Looks like a belief system which sometimes keeps an otherwise normal man chained to the bed, has paralysed our conscience.
Our language heroes or freedom fighters were indeed very good readers of the weather. They caught a glimpse of shiny weather though the sky above was covered with clouds of misrule and mishaps
A famous song of Bob Dylan contains the lyrics: ‘you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” We may be the most fascinating example to interpret the secret of Dylan's music code. Some days ago, our deputy attorney general voiced his concern for Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus. People supporting the government marked it as a plot twined by the opposition forces. Leaving a convenient chair with full understanding of the likely upheaval is never an easy task. However, if the man too is led by the weather, the element of courage will lose strength, no doubt.
Is taking note of weather a bad thing? Park Chung Hee, the legendary South Korean leader, inspired his nation by a slogan: “Let us cultivate our land when the sky remains clear. Let us engage ourselves in study when it is raining.” Our farmers sometimes benefit from the reading of the weather. Our businessmen often swim in the pond of profit taking the weather of trade into notice. In fact, reading weather is an act of rational human beings and every discipline of social science will support the job. The problem arises when the reading of weather fails to yield the expected output. This happens when good weather can’t be separated from bad weather. History is, however, a great witness of successful reading of weather. Our language heroes or freedom fighters were indeed very good readers of the weather. They caught a glimpse of shiny weather though the sky above was covered with clouds of misrule and mishaps. This was the talented reading which led them to stand strong against one of the most equipped military forces on earth.
Then, do we need to deny existing foul weather with a view to going ahead? In fact, nobody in this world can deny the weather. One can only defy it. This is the energy which keeps one’s head above water amid a devastating cyclone. Does our nation lack this sort of defiance right at this moment? May be we should look back on primary school’s learning relating to the rights and responsibilities of a good citizen. We can’t claim ourselves a good citizen just reading a bad weather and waiting for the foreign gods to make it good. We are very much aware of everything around us, thanks to the power of our brain. However, we are unaware of ourselves, thanks to our blindness regarding what to do. The most frightening feature of our weather-centric madness is that we have developed a belief system based on the knowledge that we have nothing to do by and for ourselves. Looks like, the only task remaining at our hand is to change the direction of the antenna in line with the wind and keep watching the movie together!
Michael Greenstone once said “Without economists in the room, it is like free for all where everybody is going for their narrow self-interest and there is no voice for efficiency. And what efficiency really means is 'every American citizen'.” It is not untrue that everyone has his own account of profit and loss, whether written or not. Though people talk about economic and social development round the clock, this is their own development they really want. The expectation, however, doesn’t contradict with the modern development theories buoyed by the ‘invisible hand theory’ of Great Adam Smith. So, if someone thinks that he has experienced the mythological development, he might use his power to retain the architect of that development. If someone thinks otherwise, he may use his power as well for a change.
Professor Dr. Vera Anstey once opined that common people of the Indian subcontinent under British Rule were unresponsive to economic good and bad. However, Professor Dharma Narayan argued that people here were not unresponsive at all. Rather, the farmers were very much responsive to price. If they could smell a good price for a particular crop, they would grow more crops of that genre. Antonio Gramsci said that it is necessary to show that every man is a philosopher. The statement matches well with our common people who appear as philosophers while reading weather. However, they need to be philosophers inside their heart as well, who will clear the path for their future generations breaking all the chains around.
Thomas Jefferson once said: “In matters of style, swim with the current: in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” If a rickshaw-puller thinks that he has a very fine road to ride, why will he need to wait for a signal from a foreign power? No foreign power will be able to play, if we take control of our own field. We can use our own energy if we read our weather perfectly. Will we read it?
* Mohammad Kazi Mamun is a banker and can be reached at mursjit@gmail.com