From: Aditya Nigam aditya@sarai.net (by way of Monica Narula) Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 16:48:14 +0530
I am sending a piece that a friend's daughter wrote for her school assignment. This is a 12-year old's comment. Aditya
THE AMERICA TRAGEDY AND WHAT I THINK ABOUT IT
WRITTEN BY SHANA BULHAN HAYDOCK
CLASS 6-B
I think that tragedy came after fights, fights came after wanting more and more - - - - It all started because nobody is happy with what they have. Everyone wants more. Some people are very rich and don't care if others are very poor. There is no balance. That is called Capitalism.
Another thing: some people don't allow other people to live in their country because they believe in something else. Some people couldn't bear with different people, such as Hitler, who killed off most of the Jews. People cannot live with each other and bear with the differences of the other people. They buy guns and weapons from people who sell them. They kill the people they don't like.
USA is one country which has a government that wishes to become more and more powerful. They wage war on other countries because they wish to have more, more, more! And then attacks come upon them. And they vow to strike back! Why can't they just sit down and realise that they killed so many people, they cause heartbroken families to strike back. Why can't everybody realise that violence, killings, murder - - - it's all very brutal and horrid. If nobody would kill nobody, that would mean peace. Peace - - - - - that's what hundreds, thousands of people really, actually want. Why can't everybody set aside their differences and love each other? Peace makes us happy. Hearing about capitalism, violence, innocent people dying, that makes us unhappy. If any person could live in any country they choose, then there would be no fighting for strips of land like in the case of Israel and Palestine.
And anyway, what's the use of getting more and more? You just want even more! What's the use of becoming powerful? Others start to hate you. Therefore, if everybody had the same amount of everything, and could try to control their longing for more and more, then this never would have happened, I believe.
Aditya Nigam Fellow, The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road Delhi-110054