Maximizing Action and Minimizing Yell for Positive Changes

Maximizing Action and Minimizing Yell for Positive Changes

Bon Ami Laishram

In a free democratic country like India, the constitution has granted the right to speech and expression under which the citizens can express their thoughts and ideas. The citizens can even voice against the policies of the  government in power. This is the beauty of democracy. As the world has been induced to the age of social media in the early 2000s , the people have became more vocal  using social media platforms as their media. The top legislators and executives are very active on social media.  They have teams to manage their social media accounts. They study the behaviours of their people by keeping the way of expressions and opinions as references. It helps them a lot. They don’t need to go physically within the masses individually. This is a merit of social media. And this trend is revolutionised by some doers from Harvard University.

Social media has become virtual battleground for both the people having celebrity tags and the common people through their respective social media accounts. War of words is common phenomenon on social media which also influences the certain mindsets of people in either positive perspective or negative perspective.  If the users are involved in the exchanging knowledge through various discussion and debate onboard, then its swinging towards the positive direction. However, if a user has been just lecturing and screaming to indulge other users in the task she can't accomplish or indulge, then that user can be termed as online warrior who has came up on social media just to utilize her fundamental right of speech and expression. Hence, there are more speakers than the actual doers.

If we see through the whole environment movement sparked on social media from the epicenter of the UN and other organisations, the self proclaimed climate activists are more into protesting , screaming, photoshoot sessions than sketching the raod map and implementing it from their ends. Its hypocritical when a personality self acclaimed as climate activist at one side and utilizing every set of household core to make themselves comfortable at another side. They are causing more harms to the environment than the common people. They have comparatively larger cars , refrigerators, ACs than the common people. They consume higher amount of meat than average income people. They travel more often than a common man. And when it comes to travelling, they travel by either planes or car or bus or boat/yatch with diesel engine backup. These cause pollutions and these are hazardous threats to the environment. Hence, being the climate activists , they should have abandoned any items that causes harm to the environment at larger extent.  Leaving all those comforts that cause harm to the environment shall be their first act as the real custodians of the environment. Its not that difficult  as there are many alternatives.  Till then , whatever they are doing on social media platforms, streets , events and podiums are just mouth fashion.

Minors are used by adults as their medium to reach out to the masses, gain followers and keep their climate movement alive no matter the movement yeilds positive impact or negative impact. The agenda of those adults are always dark. Its more towards improving their lives than improving the environment. They stuff all those deadly pictures of the planet after a century or two and put their minor children forward as their mouthpieces under  the direction including the contents and words for the minors to speak in addressing the media. Once the print and electronic media  are convinced with the act , they would make hero out of the minors using any means. Hence, the fame, money and name will be bestowed by some people who are not awared about the hidden agenda which is crystal clear. They can hold only protests, rally, lecture which are more dramatic than being real.

Last year, a child activist who is merely 8-9 years old and who happens to know a little about the environment and climate has address the Prime Minister by means of a photo upload on social media which when viral at some extent. She was holding a playcard urging the PM to pass a law in the parliament that would make mandatory for every student to plant 10 tress to pass their examinations with billions tress counting as the result of that plan. Some people applaud and appreciated the plan forwarded by the minor. But in reality , the plan was crafted by the guardian, sketched on the playcard, handed the playcard , clicked the picture and straight to the social media. If they’re so sure about the plan, then they could have initiated by planting plant samples in their existing lands either residential compound or their agricultural land and they should take special care for the next 5-10 years till the plants become trees. Just installing a plant sample on soil is not called plantation of tree. Till  then, its just a mere scream which the well educated people see through easily. The child is genuine as she is not well awared about what’re revolving around. But those parents or guardians who nurture their children by hijacking their childhoods may be either crooks  or people with criminal records in the past.

   

The role models on whom the young people should look upon are Saalumarada Thimmakka, an elderly woman from Karnataka who have planted and nurtured more than 300 Baniyan trees and other plants. She used her own resources in achieving her milestone. Its life long process. Jadhav Phayeng , a forest cultivators from Assam had grown a forest covering more than 500 Hectors and the forest is now providing shelter to wildlife. Moirangthem Loya,  a man from Manipur who had grown forest covering more than 300 Acres in the hillock which is also referred as the lung of Imphal City. These are only three names. There are many names and people are not much aware about their works and names because they are more into actions to bring constructive changes than screaming for changes. They have dedicated their whole lives in fostering the forests to restore the ecological balance. They are rarely seen on public events as speakers because they aren't in the service of nature for name, fame and money. Its their service to the nature and mankind and they don’t expect any other return than the positive impact in the environment.

One of the most anticipated nature driven projects is the Cauvery Calling Campaign helmed by the Isha Foundation. The objective is to revive the keveri River by planting 2.42 Billions trees in the keveri basins. The project was launched in 2019 and its estimated that it would take 12 years to complete. Both the government and civil societies are supporting the campaign. The foundation is seeking Rs. 42 from the crowd as crowd funding for a tree and the foundation has recieved aid from states as well. This is the act of giving back to the Mother Nature with our own hands by being one of the doers rather than just yelling around and complaining the authority to execute the social responsibility which every citizen is capable of doing so. There is huge difference between a crowd holding protest infront of state legislative assembly or the Parliament House asking government to save the environment by screaming different slogans in loudspeaker and delivering good content for the media to boost their TRPs and a team who is working on an optimistic plan and implementing that plan with or without the aid of government. Media companies prefer the first one than the second one bacause its easier to sell negatives than positives. 

Its high time to become the warrior on ground and work for the desired positive changes other than urging the legislators to act on the matter which a common person can also act as a lawful and responsible citizen of this country.