Hearing the songs of humanity

The heroic feat of traffic-police constable Md Monir Hossain in saving a small boy in Chittagong reminds us of the truth that humanity never dies. No matter how pervasive the extent of insouciance is at a given time, it eventually gives in to the noble virtues of humanity and empathy.
Our eyes moisten over the incident in the port city on August 31, as we discover the glow of somewhat saintly elegance in an ordinary human being. Monir Hossain virtually swam through the fetid water of a canal to rescue an 8-year-old drowning child. The class-2 student was going to school walking along the bank of the canal with a depth of 25 feet. It was morning. The child slipped on a banana peel, and slid into water. Around three hundred people gathered in no time, everybody gesturing and clamouring frenziedly. None was coming forward to save the child; only the tips of two tiny hands of the boy could be made out in the turbulent water.
The traffic constable was on way to work. He stopped. Hearing everything, and perhaps feeling disgusted at the antics of the onlookers, he jumped into the canal, reached the boy and returned to the bank holding the child. The Chittagong Metropolitan Police rewarded the policeman with money for his dutifulness and, of course, humanity. They have undoubtedly done a good job by feting the police constable, but people like Md Monir Hossain do not hanker after rewards. They come to the aid of man in distress being driven by their sheer humanity.
The incident in Chittagong was touching. It was also uplifting. But at the same time it once again speaks scathingly of a worrying trend: the spell of nonchalance that has lately overtaken the people in general in Bangladesh. Over the last few months, a number of incidents occurred in the country that had displayed both brutality and insouciance at their incredible heights. Nonchalance made itself brazenly distinct by the criminal inaction of onlookers who witnessed the acts of brutality. Coincidentally, three of the occurrences involved children.
Like cold vengefulness, jealousy and conspiring, brutality is also unique to man. Animals become angry on being hurt. At times a few of them take revenge on the members of their own species, or those outside -- including humans. We can cite the instance of elephants. But beasts in the wild are hardly seen indulging in savageries. They may attack other animals out of extreme anger, and engage in fierce fighting. Yet, they are never found inflicting planned brutality on other animals. Nor are they found conspiring to do harm to other beasts, even those out of their own areas. Humans can remain indifferent to the woes of others. Some types of animals spring up to save a member of their clan in trouble. Then the bitter conclusion that we are made to arrive at is humans are by nature brutal, unlike the members of the animal kingdom. They can also manage to remain unfazed at the predicament of their fellow beings. By giving the coat of enlightenment and wisdom to his inborn foibles, man finally defeats them and attains humanity. In fact, we are always battling against our evil traits. Some succeed in this fight; some, pitifully, don't.
People like Monir Hossain provide us with enough reasons for not losing faith in man. There are lots of persons like him even in these times of pervasive indifference and inaction. They make us hear the songs of humanity in a deafening void. As a nation with multi-faceted achievements to take pride in, we should not become prematurely pessimist.
shihabskr@ymail.com