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In diversity, there is beauty and strength
By Daanish Izhar
“We are all equal in the fact that we are all different. We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same. We are united by the reality that all colours and all cultures are distinct & individual. We are harmonious in the reality that we are all held to this earth by the same gravity. We don’t share blood, but we share the air that keeps us alive. I will not blind myself and say that my black brother is not different from me. I will not blind myself and say that my brown sister is not different from me. But my black brother is he as much as I am me. But my brown sister is she as much as I am me.” C JoyBell C
H ow many times, in our lives, have we been asked ‘who we are?’ We usually by telling our name, but beyond that, who are we? What separates us, puts us apart from the 6 billion people living on this plaanet? We try to answer this by telling where we are from, what we do for a living, our religion. This unveils some of the riddles about a person, but still most remain. The truth is that every single person on this planet is unique. A complex product of a thousand different influences. This is what makes our world worth living in. This is what creates diversity.
Every person, every family, every town, city, country, culture, race, all vary from each other. Thus there is diversity in the world. I believe that the world is like a deck of playing cards. Every single card, no matter what the suit or number, is unique and without even one of the cards the whole deck is useless. In the same way the world is incomplete without diversities.
In nature it is only the “survival of the fittest.” Thus only those organisms which can adapt, change, improve themselves, those which are diverse and therefore the strongest will be able to prevail. A simple example is modern wheat. The wheat we eat has evolved from 7 different kinds of grasses, all with their own benefits, and because of this they provide strength and nutrients and are able to strive under the harshest of conditions.
A country in which there is vast diversity is bound to prosper. If people from different cultural backgrounds join together, aiming for a common goal they will without doubt be efficient and successful. Everyone has their own unique set of strengths and skills, if we can unite together with all the different people in the world and make one global community, only then can mankind flourish.
A community such as this helps us overcome racial and ethnic divisions. People, when given the opportunity to live with and interact in daily life with individuals from all cultures, religions and race, will realise that they are not so different. Actually we are more alike than we are dissimilar. After all we are all humans. We all feel pain and joy. We all have families and people we love. We all need the same food and drink and oxygen to survive. We all bleed red and in the end each one of our lives will come to an end.
When there is diversity in a country, different traditions and customs begin to intertwine with each other. What this brings is an amazing offspring of colour and all new cultures. The myriad of spices of the Southeast Asian cuisines combined with the meat loving Turkish cuisine, the colour of Indian along with the elegance of English weddings, the rhythmic beats of African music mixed with the popular electro music of America. It all creates a beautiful collage of distinct cultures. The traditions of different people also come together in the same place. Imagine having two New Year celebrations, every year. What would it be like to celebrate Holi straight after Eid, and then Hanukkah just before Christmas?
Acceptance of different cultures in the world is a must. Our ancestors struggled through with discrimination and racism, striving for a diverse yet united globe. This, then we must understand, is the only solution. Mankind can best prosper when we use our various strengths in unison and reach out for our common goal.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk