STOP HATING!

By Maria Imonitie

We should stop hating each other, and instead try to understand.

When talking about belief you can often end up in a situation where you don’t even remember what you believe in anymore, and I, ironically, believe that it is because of the understanding of what a belief is and how to practise it. I think that we always keep growing as humans and therefore, must our belief grow with us; and there is no such thing as being correct or wrong about your personal belief. If so, then who decides what is correct and what is wrong? I would like to meet this person or group of persons – and no, the politicians do not get that kind of power, because they are often the reason why people need to believe in something.

I agree, that using one’s belief as an excuse to go to war, is wrong, but nevertheless, should we instead of telling these people what we believe is correct, try to understand why they believe that war is the only ‘weapon’ they have for better living conditions? When looking at the world today a lot has changed, the environment gets worse, the racial war is still terrible, there is still war around the world, capitalism is rising as never before, and what does all this comes down to? Exactly what we believe in. The economists believe that capitalism is the only way of ensuring the world to spin around, the racists believe that there is only one correct ‘look,’ the extremists believe that they cannot be heard and they are acting in the name of a certain God or ideology.

My personal belief is that we as humans are pack animals and we are generally born ‘good’ in the sense that we don’t want to hurt our fellow humans, but if we get threaten or if we lack information about the situation, we act irrational. This means that when war is occurring it is often because it is the last resort for someone to be heard, seen or to improve a situation. I doubt that people won’t agree to the fact that if you don’t know when you and your family will get food, you’ll be desperate and might react to this irrationally. This then comes out as it being in the light of a certain belief, but honestly, in that situation what would have been a fair excuse? They won’t listen to us? Life is unfair? I doubt that, that would have changed the situation. Nevertheless, I am not saying that using one’s belief as an excuse of doing horrible things is right, but I do think that we need more humanity in our way of perceiving the world and those around us.

Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

Today there is a discourse about Muslims being terrorists, but that is just, in my opinion, a very easy way out, instead of actually questioning why the group of HUMANS are acting the way they are. They are first and foremost humans, as their beliefs have grown with them, but they were not born believing – no one were. Terrorism is, according to the Oxford Dictionary, “The unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims” which does not state anything about religion, but rather indicates that it is in the belief of something. So, if we look at the recent war in Syria, then a limited amount of people paid attention to why ISIS is fighting against the government at that time, but rather focused on the belief, as that was Islam. So therefore, all Muslims, must believe the same as ISIS. Well, no! But everyone would agree that living under the conditions of dictatorship might not be so sunny and pleasing as North Korea is portraying it, or at least in accordance to Kim Jong-un. Well, that might be because North Koreans get killed before they say something, and as for this moment, nobody is trying to rescue them for living in terrible living conditions under a dictatorship, so how would we react if they were to make a war against Kim Jung-un? Can we blame them? When I say we, I refer to us who are privileged enough to live under conditions where we are not suppressed, or even if we are, we are not being killed for fighting against it, us who have a voice.

When talking about the war against racism, it is terrifying how I must mention this in an essay about belief, as I would believe that we are now smarter, and we are now in hands of knowledge that should do better than having racism living in today’s societies around the world. But unfortunately, this is not the case. I am a strong believer that campaigns such as, Black Lives Matters will create a better world, as it connects the world in different societies by being on the social media platforms, and therefore, it will create awareness that the world is still facing a huge issue of racism. When people are talking about e.g. the happenings in South Africa where the white people are facing hate from black people, they are calling it reverse racism, but no. That is just racism, there is no such thing as reverse racism, as it makes it sound like there is a ‘right’ racism first, which would be white against black. Humans all comes from the same race, but those who are lucky to be born closer to the sun, naturally have a darker skin-color than those living in the colder parts of the world. Ironically, the belief of beauty is to be tanned, but still, it seems like it is a specific level of tan that is acceptable – really, should we believe in what the beauty magazines tell us?

Photo by Alexis Fauvet on Unsplash

To end my personal thoughts on belief, I will conclude what I exactly mean and what I belief in. In a world where many things are happening, I believe that one needs a reason for why things are happening or why one is acting the way one is, as that is easier than just facing the facts that we might just be in the situations we are in because of OURSELVES. I know, that is a terrible fact, but maybe you didn’t get the job because you were not qualified enough, not because someone with a great, darker skin-color than you moved here. Stop the blaming and look on what we can do for a better world. We should stop hating each other, but instead try to understand. We need to understand that someone is not as privileged, and therefore, they will react irrational to be heard, so let’s not forget them, but let’s listen to what they have to say. If one is throwing stones at you, instead of throwing back a larger one, ask the person; ‘Hey, why are you doing this?’ This will make you help understand them. I disgust hate, racism, war and bureaucracy. I believe in understanding, humanity, goodness. Therefore, will my final words be: Let’s not pick hair out of a bald man’s head, but let us instead be humans to each other.

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About the Author:

Maria is a student of International Social Science and Cultural Encounters in her final semester at Roskilde University, Denmark. Here, she has been on exchange in Hong Kong, done fieldwork in Mozambique and about to go on another fieldwork in Uganda in May.

She is 24 years old, Danish and married to a Nigerian man. She grew up in a typical family with a mother, father, sister and brother in a small city outside Copenhagen. She has always been interested in the unfairness in the world, and with her studies, aims to be capable of stopping some of the injustice in the world.