Living with Terrorism
One very fine morning, Mr. Deshmukh woke up early to the start of a new day. He was going to go to Mumbai to visit his friend for some money matters. So just before he left, he took Rs. 10,000 worth of cash in his pocket. But along with that he also took one more thing, fear, the fear of Terrorism.
Terrorism is such a thing we cannot control, and it isn’t easy to sort out either. We can’t launch a war against terrorism, terrorism itself is a war. When you hear the word terrorism you probably see a guy dressed in black with an AK47 in his hand pointing towards an innocent life. It looks scary doesn’t it? Up till now all we have done is tolerate terrorism, but now we should try our bests to prevent this terrible thing called terrorism.
Since 9/11 Terrorism has become more and more frequent, not just in the USA but also all over the world. In November 2008, the bomb blasts in Mumbai at the Taj Hotel lead to the death of 164 people injuring as many as 300. The recent bomb blast at Delhi killed a mere 12 people and wounded another 64. Surely the Prime Minister must have been shook by this event, and it will not be long until the government takes action.
Ever since somebody got the idea of putting a bomb in airplane, airport security has tightened up a lot. I remember whenever I used to travel by plane, at the security check-in desk the security officials did not even allow a single drop of water to be let on to the airplane. They had us remove our shoes, belts, mobile phones, watches, and other stuff like that for checking. With all that checking terrorism on planes has been reduced to almost zero.
It makes sense to the traveler that if his or her journey is going to be safe then why not the place he or she is going be safe? The Government should be caring enough to avail these security measures to its citizens, for the city’s security and in turn the country’s security.
The marvelous city of London has many historical places of interest. These tourism spots are such that without them the city of London wouldn’t be anything like the city of London. To protect these historical venues, the city has adopted a network of cameras throughout the city, with 24-hour surveillance. If any suspicious activity is spotted the police are sent to that particular area to check it out.
I’m pretty sure our government treasures its citizens as much as it treasures its historical monuments. But it doesn’t seem that way. There should be security check posts on the main roads or highways leading to or in the city. The security system that London has adopted is also quite necessary. This security system has yet another advantage, it reflects the technological development of the city. It may be expensive but not as expensive as loosing a life.
Earthquakes have been a major problem for Japan its citizens. There’s no way they could stop an earthquake but the most they could do was to avoid it causing any damage. In Japan, the government holds meetings with the citizens weekly to keep in touch about any problems they might be facing related to earthquakes. Any citizen of any age has the right to put forward his or her problem. So why not do that with the problem of Terrorism? If our Government is responsible for taking care of its citizens, then it is also their responsibility of taking care of terrorism. Our Government should hold meetings with the public at least every month taking note of any suspicious activities. Once taken note those activities can be given special attention. But for all this the co-operation of the public is crucial. So it would be sensible that we should also shoulder our share of preventing terrorism. If some suspicious activity is seen, it should be noted down to the police for further action and safety. Our presence of mind and alertness can pay off in preventing such disasters.
Living with terrorism is one of the most prevalent challenges in life. It has gotten to its limit and is no longer such a thing, which anybody will tolerate. So I might as well advise Mr. Deshmukh to be alert and not worry about terrorism on his trip. It is now that we should take action and do whatever we can to not live with but against that scary word called terrorism.
|| Jai Hind ||
