Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
We do not have the right to remain silent
Year 2010- Internship with a Government health program funded by UNICEF
Location- A forgotten suburban area of Lahore called 'Manawan'
"You are not getting my point." I emphasized politely. "Your children will be doomed to a bleak future if you do not educate them." I finished my point with an air of certainty- indeed, it was absolutely true.
The lady in front of me smiled- the outline of bones jutting out of her withered skin, her clothes giving the look of many a day's wear, and her hands coarse because of tireless labor.
"What I want for my children's future is irrelevant, Bibi*. My family would starve to death if all of us do not work for survival. You tell me, who is going to feed my children if I do not send them for labor to the city everyday? Will you or the government take this responsibility?"
The question was simple. Yet, I did not have the answer.
I was in a typical rural setting of Pakistan: a huddled community consisting of plain, vulnerable houses made out of mud, livestock either grazing about freely or lying indolently in roughly made stables, vast green fields with a spray of yellow mustard flowers on top, and local people, not accustomed to urban tourists, pretending to continue with their routine chores sparing us furtive glances. It was one of the many areas of Pakistan, where electricity, gas, regular education and entertainment are abstract ideas. As far as financial conditions go, most of them do not even know what a Rs. 100 note looks like and have hardly ever visited a bank. However, the concept which is more than just familiar to them is that of hunger and deprivation, of relentless hard work with little or no reward and a constant feeling of hopelessness in which they are spending their lives exactly like those of their fathers and forefathers.
Don't misunderstand me. It was not the first time that I had witnessed such appalling discrepancy among social classes in Pakistan. I, myself, was raised in a family of self-made individuals and have witnessed the struggle for prosperity. My father, a Government officer serving in the public sector, shared with me the heart-breaking accounts of people he came across everyday. He always said, "Feel for your people. Because the day you stop doing that, you would be left empty-handed when you turn back in life and find yourself accountable to you."
Living in Pakistan, not a day goes by when one does not come across people with tear-jerking tales of gloom. But what is more distressing than that is that the majority of the nation has turned a deaf ear to these stories and a blind eye to their surroundings. These human rights violations should be sneering at our leaders, making their space amongst the top priorities on their mandates, there should be no qualms about the fact that the rights to life, education and comfort need to be protected. Yet there's a void, a painful indifference that shuns us into silence and makes us all equally complacent.
I, as an individual of this very nation, refuse to stop hoping, and refuse to stop struggling. I will strive for the deprived till the very end. I might not be able to revolutionize the prevailing principles running this world. But I can undoubtedly say that I have a dream. To fulfill my ambitions, I need to equip myself with education, groom my thoughts and ideas amongst the diversity college education has to offer, and learn in an atmosphere where people with similar ideologies come together and make an idea more than just an idea. So that one day we can all bring the change, in our nations and this world, that we have been waiting to see since ages. So that we can stop wondering "Why us?" and start thinking on the lines of "Why not us?"
*Bibi- the word used in Urdu Language for "Ma'am"
I know its long, but apart from that, any suggestions for improvement? :)
However, the concept which is more than just familiar to them is that of hunger and deprivation, of relentless hard work with little or no reward and a constant feeling of hopelessness in which they are spending their lives exactly like those of their fathers and forefathers.
I would reword this sentence; it's entirely too long and it could benefit from some compressing.
But I can undoubtedly say that I have a dream
Don't start a sentence with "but."
So that we can stop wondering "Why us?" and start thinking on the lines of "Why not us?"
I get the "why us?" part but not the "why not us" part, don't know if it's just me or if you are unclear.
Good luck!
Could you do me a favor by checking over my Common App essay/Lehigh supplement? :)
