What Unites

As I close my eyes and drift away to a land where there is love, health, peace, and blessings. I wanted to take the time to think and reflect. 

     I was taking the time to reflect upon my previous thoughts, particularly with the idea of narratives. There are varieties of narratives, some get heard more, while others are quietly pushed to the side. Previous examples were of American Slavery or the Civil Rights movement. Much of these gained attention, and became major narratives. Specific individuals supported the causes. We can think of the pioneering work done by Dr. Martin Luther king, or President Abraham Lincoln who finally declared the end of slavery in America. We can also think of narratives that are pushed to the side - such as historical, and present day oppressions of the Hispanic / Latino populations. There are probably more examples that we can think about, but for the purposes of demonstrating my thoughts, these will suffice from an American perspective. 

    The same idea can also be transferred to an Eastern context, where there was the influence of the British Empire upon Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Once one country. After the British Empire left and independence was declared, one nation became divided to three. We can still see remnants of the empires in countries. Where there are roads, structures, buildings, that were developed from these periods. Today we probably see closer ties with India and Britain and also upon a global level. The relationships have been maintained well, and not only that India's wealth is higher than Pakistan's, suggesting that they can afford to keep relations well. But we also see an industry called Bollywood. A booming film industry, whose films bring in top dollars. The majority of the films are spoken in the Urdu language, but little is it known that Urdu is the official national language of Pakistan. In the same sense we can see how narratives can be supported, or quietly made invisible, depending upon wealth and status. Opportunity becomes limited because of these factors.  But while tensions between the two countries fluctuate, we must also consider what unites the countries. Muslim / Pakistani actors / Actresses have helped to boom the Bollywood industry such as Shah Rukh Khan,  Amir Khan, Somy Ali, or Zeba Bakhtiar. 

     So what am I alluding to, when I think of minority and majority narratives? Once again I'm saying it's time to level the playing field. It is time to stop taking advantage of the vulnerable, it is time to stop exploiting weaker nations, and it is time to purposely stop making the narratives of one population more important than another's. We cannot go back and rectify history or past mistakes, but we can introspect into history, to ensure past mistakes are not repeated. 

My thoughts to share with love & kindness! :) 

​Notes: These thoughts were originally hand-written on June 18th, 2018.
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