2% DNA difference

World’s loneliest gorilla, Bua Noi, spending her 41st Christmas ALONE, still trapped in a mall cage for shoppers to gawp at.

 Gorillas are the animals most similar to humans. I heard we share only 2% DNA difference between humans and gorillas. But how are we behaving towards them?

Human rights issue in the “Democratic Republic of Congo”

 

Current situation:

Heavy fighting is going on between the Congolese Army and M23 rebels. This war is causing a massive humanitarian crisis. Thousands of people are displaced—the war is influencing regional tensions. The M23 rebels have closed the capital as they are fighting there. Hundreds of thousands moved to another city, Goma, hoping to find their basic needs (food, water, and shelter). The situation may worsen when the UN withdraws its peacekeepers by the end of this year.

The human rights issues/violations:

This situation didn’t arise overnight. Decades of fighting with armed groups, violation of human rights, and gender-based violence created this massive humanitarian situation.

The Human rights violations we find more prominent are “Mass killings” happening through the armed groups fighting, inter-communal violence, giving trouble to the dissent, and terrible treatment to the detainees.

Hundreds of houses are burned down, and their property is looted. Children and the elderly are also getting killed in huge numbers.

The UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) and/or UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples):

The Congo accepted 167 recommendations from 174 of the UNDRIP. Only three of the accepted recommendations are to improve Indigenous communities. Indigenous is a controversial word in Africa because it is believed that all Africans are indigenous.

Poverty is very prominent among Congo's Indigenous people (Locally, they are called Pygmy).  They don’t have any birth identity, and 65% of them don’t get any education.

Most don’t have a national ID card or birth record, so they don’t have a voter ID, so their contributions to politics are not considered. They don’t have a voice in Congo’s politics. Their lands have been taken, and knowledge of ancient medicine has been destroyed. These are clear violations of human rights.

There are more Human Rights violations against the Indigenous people. Like children are taken for forced labour and sexual exploitation. The criminal networks do these. Indigenous people work at very low wages. As they are illiterate, they had to depend on another group of people to manage their wages.

পাশাপাশি থেকে (Staying with me)

[English version has been given below the main post]

কিছু মানুষ আছেন, যারা পাশে থাকলে আপনি খুব ভাল বোধ করেন, রবীন্দ্রনাথের ভাষায় কেমন একটা স্বাস্থ্যকর আবহাওয়া চারপাশে থাকে। শুধু ভাল লাগা নয়, ভিন্ন রকম প্রতিক্রিয়াও আপনি বোধ করবেন। ভাললাগার কেউ কাছে থাকলে আপনি হয়তো ভাল কাজ করতে পারেন, আবার কেউ কাছে থাকলে হয়তো আপনার কাজকর্ম সব বন্ধ হয়ে যায়। ভালো বোধ করারও কত রকম ভেদ। এটা আপনার মা-বাবা, ভাই-বোন, আত্নীয়, বন্ধু, সহকর্মী, প্রতিবেশি, অচেনা কেউ সবার ক্ষেত্রেই সম্ভব। 

আর এই মনোভাবও বদলে যেতে পারে সময়ে...। তখন হয়তো সেই ব্যাক্তি থেকে দূরে থেকেই আপনি ভালো বোধ করবেন।

কখনও এমনও হয় কারো ক্ষেত্রে যে, সে আছে নাকি চলে গেছে, সেটা আপনি কখনও ভেবে দেখেন নি। অথচ, চলে যাবার পর মনে হবে সব শুন্য হয়ে গেছে। অথচ, সে হয়তো আপনার কথা ভেবেও দেখছে না।

এ কারনেই হয়তো আমরা সব সময় আপনজনের সাথে থাকতে ভালো বাসি।

কিন্তু এমন কেন হবে। বাস্তবে কে আপনার পাশে থাকল বা গেল, তাতে আপনার কিছুই যায় আসে না, যদি না কোন কাজ থাকে আপনার সাথে। তারপরও প্রতিটা মানুষই হয়তো নিজের কিছু প্রভাব ফেলে তার চারপাশে। তাই হয়তো কারো উপস্থিতি আপনাকে এক মুহুর্ত শান্তি দেয় না। আর কাউকে আপনি সব সময়ই সাথে রাখতে চান।

[০৪ ঠা মার্চ, ২০০৮]

There are few special people, when they stay around you, you will feel really well. Like Rabindranath Tagore, we can say, "They make you feel like a healthy environment around you". Not only good feeling, there are more complex feeling that you may feel. Sometimes when they are around, you may feel good to work, sometimes they just take all your senses that you can't work at all. I mean you may feel different way about this good feeling. It can be your father, mother, brother, sister, relative, friend, coworker, neighbor or unknown person.

This feeling may change also, then you might feel well when they keep distance with you.

Sometimes this strange feelings happens, about somebody you actually don't care. whether they are around you or not, you don't care. But when they leave, you will feel empty. While they might not feeling about you anything.

May be these are the reasons that we like to live with our loved ones.

But why will this feeling come to us? It actually doesn't matter whether any person stay around me or not, unless they have any work with me.

May be every people has some influence on the environment around them. That's why you may don't want to stay with some people for a moment and you might want some people to stay with you always. 

[March 04, 2008]