I often wonder what the value of human life is and the first thought that comes to my mind is the measures used by the Insurance companies to calculate it before they issue the insurance policy. And so it makes me shudder because all I see is an “ECONOMIC” connotation attached to it. All its worth is what you earn, what does your account balance say and what designation or power you enjoy currently. It’s suddenly all about the profit with regards to a certain someone’s life, and so there must be a break-even point as well… you know like how much of human life loss is acceptable and how much is not. Not just that, its also about how a common mans life is not much of a loss as compared to a big shot who’s life is more precious than a whole country.
Beyond that, in general also, it’s sad to see how we claim that our life and that of our near and dear ones is priceless and at the same time we shamelessly toss it aside as cheap when others are concerned. The value of the comfort that our car provides is more than the value of the air we all breathe; we value what’s right for us more than what’s good, right and just for all. What we value must benefit us and if it causes any harm to someone else, it is none of our business. And when we don’t have answers to any of these questions, we conveniently put forward the Darwinian Theory…Survival of the fittest!!! It’s like placing LIFE in the same category as the products that marketers must sell by hook or by crook.
Wondering where it’s coming from? Well, I have become appalled in recent years at the amount of murders, crimes, selfishness and just plain disrespect of human life in our society. The murder, kidnapping, bombings and worst of all the honor killing stories being re run on all news channel every day make me sit back and think every single day about how life only has a monetary value, but nothing else. What am I worth even if I am a CEO of the biggest Multinational Corporation in the world??? Nothing! 9/11 attacks affected everyone equally. It din matter if the one who got killed was the CEO or an AVP or just a cleaner… for that matter, it means nothing even to a simple thief who would kill to save himself from the trouble of being caught. Every time I feel sad about a meticulously calculated number being attached to life and I try to look beyond it and its implications… I don’t see much. In fact it upsets me further to know that economic worth of a person is much higher than the emotional value of his/her life
On one hand are the terrorist groups that are actually working on innovative ways of how to slaughter people and on the other hand are the small time crooks that murder to survive. And both don’t make sense to me. How can life be so cheap? It troubles me deeply to know that each one of us, in our very own way, disrespect other person’s value while we probably place the highest on ours. And its not just about you and me, it’s also about the people who are related to us. The importance of life is not restricted only to the individual. It’s also about the emotional cost that a person carries; the influence that ones existence or non-existence can have on the lives of our friends and family.
And as if the people we don’t know were not enough, the people we know are also becoming a threat. Look at the recent Arushi murder case where the father killed his own daughter… I mean seriously, a perfectly normal guy, a well renowned doctor, had all the money and reputation one wants in life…What was he thinking? Its like at both the individual level and the community level, the sense of security and safety people usually feel is eroding gradually.
I don’t know what can be done about the situation and the way LIFE is treated by us, I don’t know if I myself can do something about it but it surely does pain me to see the way we abuse the gift of life and the gift of compassion that we have been blessed with. Wish we could really be the superior living organism that we are supposed to be, because if it’s really about the survival of the fittest than I don’t know how we are better than the so called lesser beings.
August 4th, 2008 at 4:54 am
Wonderfully said Anam, it is true that materialism has taken over everything else & it definitely is seen in the importance given , the respect given & the way one is treated better when the pockets are full.The person may have miserable value systems Well , as far as I have seen it here in India human lives have absolutely no values, That is why you see such poor security measure, infrastructure, as roads have hundreds of accidents but nobody cares .
As far as the Arushi case you mentioned goes its been proved the father was innocent & the watchmans friend killed the child.The parents had the AC on & so the daughters cry for help went unnoticed.But sad to see that the policedid not investigate well & apart from the pain of losing his daughter the father had to bear all the atrocities meted out to him.He was not even allowed to grieve hmmm.goes back to the thought how valuable was his life hmmm??
Thank you for writing on such a wonderful subject.
August 10th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Very nicely put together anam.. true that value of a human being is going lesser every single day. Maybe values need to be injected from childhood in the minds of kids.. Don’t know why but I still believe good parenting has a lot to do with the values later on carried on by anyone.. God bless