Despair more valuable than Life?

Nahian Jamal:
“We came out of the school at 2:20, as we always do after the dispersal. As we walked towards the car parking. We hadn’t even got inside the car, when we were informed that a group of people in a procession were heading towards our school. We heard, that as they moved ahead, they broke and burnt many cars and buses.

We got panicked. We could not understand what was happening or what step should we take. We decided to sit and wait inside the school till the danger was aborted. In the meantime, we got to know that the destructive procession was held by the garments workers. I was really shocked. We had heard of such desperate actions by political protestors, but not actually thought that common people could go so desperate that they risk theirs and our lives!

We waited at school for about an hour and half, and came out thinking that the situation probably had become a bit calm. But what we saw after coming out was more than a mere shock! The security guards were saying that a car containing the driver and a school student was attacked while they tried to move away from the procession area. The driver and the child tried to stop them but they were hit too. Both got injured and eventually were taken to the clinic for treatment. After hearing all this, we got more scared. But we couldn’t have been sitting at school all day; so we started off towards Mirpur Cantonment. On the way there, we saw broken glasses, burnt vehicles and groups of police members on the incident spot.

More of the garments workers were coming, probably in the preparation of a new procession…but we took off from there as soon as we could.

Now, let’s put an eye on the reason for all this massacre. It’s the Savar Tragedy. Of course, it is a very sad and mournful thing that has taken place in the country, and we all believe that the culprits should be punished. But for that they cannot be risking the lives of common people, destroying personal properties, creating a mess around the country. They can wait patiently and see what happens. All this would do nothing but worsen the situation. There are some common questions we all want to ask: what are we, the children supposed to do? Sit idle at home, not go

to school and let our education be hampered? Is despair more valuable than life? Is violence the only way to protest? Don’t we have a right to live independent and safe lives? I am sure that no one has an answer to our innocent questions. We are like slaves of their commands and are only allowed to keep our thoughts in our minds and to ourselves.

Political parties have full rights of putting up a strike, anytime they want to no matter what the reason is. They don’t even care about our studies being hampered, or lives being the victim of their violence and vengeance. Sometimes I feel that all what we are taught or ever said are all a lies. If our elders don’t follow the rules of nobility, then what are we supposed to learn from them? Well, everything in this vast world seems like coming to an end. There is no limit violence, no end to vicious deeds. I don’t know where we will end up next if these things continue to happen, but I hope people unfold their blindfolds, and realize what we, the children at the age of 14 have realized! “

–> Nahian Jamal, Class VI, Scholastica.

Please note: The writer of this article isn’t a professional but a sixth grade student of Scholastica, Nahian Jamal. She explains what she saw and witnessed in the afternoon, 29th April, 2013 in Mirpur 14. She is solely apologizing for any such statement in this article that might hurt any reader.