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No vale nada la vida, la vida no vale nada

06/23/2011 By 1 Comment

by Maitri Pamo

Activists demonstrate – physically at rallies, and also by words and deeds. They demonstrate the way they feel the world should be. They demonstrate their ideas in the hopes of igniting the spark. I am thankful that I live in a country where I am free to raise my voice at the injustices I see. As an activist, I am plugged into a constant stream of brutality. It is a horrific, ceaseless parade of depravity and one that demands opposition. I have no choice but to stand against this culture of apathy and cruelty. Silence is not an option for me.

This was not the case for 13 year old Hamza al-Khateeb. When he disappeared at a rally in Syria in April, he was not making his voice heard. The child was going to the rally simply to see the commotion. He was not a protester. The fact did not matter to the Syrian Airforce Intelligence that has been accused of this child’s sadistic murder. The torture inflicted on this boy by his government has fueled anger and protests across Syria.

A few years ago, in Baltimore, another 13 year old child was savagely murdered. To any rational person, the first event in the chain that led to Tywonde Jones’ death appears trivial. The thought that a ringing mobile phone could eventually lead to the slaying of a child is ludicrous, barbaric. Regardless, this is what happened and what is more absurd is that these incidents continue every day.

Whether discussing the vicious killing of humans, or the jaw dropping cruelty of a group of men setting fire to a live cat and filming the suffering of the animal while laughing, the point remains: humans would do well to learn empathy and compassion.

What parent wants for their children a world such as this? In our development as a species we are stymied by detachment, an inability to empathize with other living beings. Too many do not practice compassion with constancy. And while some may think that it is not their problem, I posit that the rampant disregard for life and the culture of cruelty, a true disease in the world, should be everyone’s problem.

One of the solutions should be inculcated in everyone, starting with children. Children should be taught empathy and compassion just as they should be taught critical thinking. TeachKind.org is a website with materials that educators can use to teach compassion to children. This is good, but it is not systemic. There is no standard curriculum that makes these teachings mandatory for our children. I think there should be. I think we should all demonstrate to our schools that there should be.

Contributor, Maitri Pamo.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.

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About Maitri Pamo

Matri was born in Guatemala City and emigrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was a toddler. Her childhood years were spent in Washington D.C. She was fortunate to have been aided and encouraged to apply to a great school in Virginia by a teacher who saw a spark in her when she taught her in the DC public school system. Maitri was disadvantaged in that she then became the only Latina in her class for many years. When it came time to go to college, she left for New York City, the place of her childhood dreams, to attend Barnard College, Columbia University. She graduated with a degree in Foreign Area Studies, with a concentration in Latin America. When she finally realized what she wanted to do professionally, she enrolled in three extra years of undergraduate coursework in order to fulfill the requirements for application to veterinary medical school. She graduated from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine with a degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.

In addition to her professional life, a life she finds not only rewarding but constantly challenging, Maitri is a wife and a mother of three young children. She is an activist, interested in furthering knowledge, participating and directly involving herself in the areas of human and non human animal rights and environmentalism. She tries to engage in the world around her to influence it as much as she can to help secure a healthy, peaceful living environment for her children and all other living beings on the planet. She is a benevolent misanthrope, a polyglot, a lover of travel. She has wild plans of obtaining a law degree when her children are older. She is currently practicing emergency medicine and volunteers her services wherever they are needed.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.

Comments

  1. Cesar Vargas says:
    06/23/2011 at 1:58 pm

    Very good article. More people need to read.

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