Any reasonable person with good conscience would want to live in a world in which children are playing and laughing in joy, in which women are held in high esteem as first class citizens without any discrimination because of their style of dress or their vision of the world, and in which all people have high living standards; anyone would want a life with a high level of welfare, a high level of education, cutting edge technology, a life fulfilled with arts and aesthetics, a life full of freedoms in which young girls and young boys will live comfortably.
Human nature is prone to beauty, aesthetics and comfort. People are fond of clean, new things, technological advances and most important of all, freedoms. Anyone would enjoy beautiful houses, clean and neat gardens, aesthetically pleasing clothes, top model cars, delicious, well- prepared food. Everyone dreams about a life full of these pleasures .
The bird's eye view of the world we actually are living in at the moment does not present us the image everyone dreams about and wishes for. In the vast majority of the world we see troubles, poverty, tears, bloodshed, wars and unrest.
The world we are living in now, the world in which children are passing away in wars in Syria, or in Palestine as their tiny bodies are smashed, is nowhere near the world that we dream of .
The world we are living in now is a world in which children are starving to death in Africa and Iraq because of famine; this is nowhere near the world we dream of in which a healthy generation is brought up eating anything they feel like eating.
The world we are living in now is a world in which women are stoned to death in Bahrain, in Saudi Arabia, in Nigeria, Somali and Afghanistan, a world in which about 130 million of them are forcibly circumcised (according to the UN reports) against their will; this is nowhere near the world we dream of where women have the right to speak out their minds, having the right to dress, have fun and dance as ever they like.
The world we are living in now is a world in which we only see devastated houses in Syria, Gaza, Iraq and Afghanistan and it is nowhere near the world we dream of in which everyone lives in luxury villas, drives top model cars and benefits from cutting edge technology.
The world we dream of and the one we actually are living in are very different from each other. The fact that a certain socio-economic stratum enjoys the standards we all dream of does not mean that the world as we dream of exists. The world we dream of could only come true when all the people living on it enjoy the same luxuries. The fact that we see a startling contrast when we turn our faces from one side to another indicates that the world we dream of is still far away.
The reports prepared by international organizations numerically reveal these bitter facts. For example; according to the United Nations Development Program, the world's richest 1% own 40% of all wealth and 50% of the world's adults own just %1 of all wealth.
According to reports by the International Labor Organization, more than 10 million children are made to work as slaves in various jobs and the ages of 6.5 million of these children are between 5-14. According to data provided by UNICEF, each year approximately 1.2 million children fall into the hands of human traffickers.
According to the latest report of the World Health Organization, despite all the studies done and programs undertaken, violence towards women could not be prevented; on the contrary, violence has increased over time. One of every three women in the world is subjected to violence.
These are only a few of the facts revealing the current state of the world. Enter " woman", "children", "persecution", "violence", "hunger" in any search engine and you will come across ten thousands of articles which once more drum the fact into our souls that we are light years away from the world we dream of.
Actually the world we dream of is not unattainable. There is only one key to make this possible and that key is love. It is a matter of embedding love into the souls of all people.
Providing a proper education is the most important path to make love prevail the world. If we patiently and resolutely create a positive education, both in schools starting from childhood and in visual and written media - as well as social media - it is apparent that this spirit of hatred that is all too common today would fade away.
If we develop a spirit of love, a spirit of compassion, a spirit of forgiving mistakes and atoning errors, a spirit of enjoying the beauties of other people instead of the spirit of hatred, rage and vengeance, instead of the spirit of jealousy and competition, we could start eliminating the cruelty and persecution going on in the world right now. The important thing is to hold tight to the key of love which will open the door to the world we dream of.
There will be no place for war, for crime, for evils and treachery in the world created by by a sharing, charitable, selfless generation brought up being taught to abstain from offending anyone, to constantly think about the comfort, peace and ease of the others, to enjoy the success of others. Then we can have the world we dream of, but only when we let love into our hearts.
Adnan Oktar's piece on Urdu Times&Riyadh Vision:
