The World Chants: 'Yes We Can'

Arifeen Rahman , 9th Grade
San Jose CA
Saint Francis High School

Change has never been a foreign concept to me. Since I was little, languages would swerve in an out of my tongue, combining, intertwining, and creating words and phrases even my parents had never heard of. Traditions would meld into a delightful potpourri. Eid was celebrated alongside Thanksgiving at my home; the turkey held it place of honor right next to haphazardly stacked boxes of prized sweets. Change has always been fluid to me, an evolving force of silent renewal and growth. But now, change is different. It is revolutionary, quick, abrupt, empowering - shattering. I watched President Obama’s election with fervor and the economy’s death sentence with horror. The world is now amplified - each word ricocheting of walls of steel, each action spreading ripples across vast lakes of still water.

We live in a rare world today, tangled in a web of connections where information can travel from one end of the earth to another in a second. Yet, in many ways we are still so disconnected from one another. In today’s world we seem to have forgotten our rare gift of empathy, instead lapsing into an apathetic state of thoughtless indifference. If I could change but one thing in this world, I would remove apathy from the human mindset.

The human ability to so strongly empathize with one another is distinctly ours – it is a gift to be treasured, and used to the utmost of our ability. Reverting to apathy means losing our humanity in the process. Our apathetic mindset is the largest barrier to solving the world’s problems. Poverty and the environment are two issues that apathy has caused to spiral deeper into ruin.

The images of Dhaka, Bangladesh are vividly pressed into my mind from my visits as a child. The blaring of car horns mesh with the steady of rise of exhaust from cars. Little scooters running on natural gas zip past tiny cars running on mixed gasoline and diesel. Ragged faces of young children peer in through car windows, begging for money. Not a single face turns to acknowledge them as they pass by.

The people are sedated, numbed by the everyday occurrence of such pain and suffering, that it no longer means anything to them. They are numbed by apathy. It is firmly in my belief that such horrors should no longer be mindlessly accepted. Every child deserves a home and an education. The upper and middle class must empathize with the less fortunate.

At the same time, apathy plagues the western world just as equally, if not more than the developing world. Landfills store plastic, waste, and garbage in pits of land. Excess almost literally defines our culture. Nothing can be reused more than once before being thrown away. Consumed with greed, companies obsess about short-term profit, forsaking the environment in the process.

In contrast, necessity has forced the developing world to reach environmental sustainability. Poverty has driven the poorest of these nations to become the greatest recyclers. In Dhaka, nothing is wasted. Plastic is a rare substance. Bottles are collected. Tin cans are crushed and reused. Piles of newspaper constantly renew themselves new copies. Plastic bags have been banned to protect sewage pipes from clogging during flood season. Their empathy and depth of connection with the earth’s resources has created a practical method of preserving the environment.

Many deny me my dream. They proclaim that changing an idea so abstract is impossible. This unknown substance, apathy, cannot be engineered and exchanged with a shiny replacement hot from the factory. However, the war on apathy can be fought on several levels, from local to global. I fight in the war against apathy every shift I volunteer at Agnews Developmental Center and El Camino Hospital. Every shift I complete brings me one step closer to understanding these new worlds.

As an Asian-American, change has always been fluid for me. I have never lived in one world, but a mixture of two seamlessly spun together. This is the world that I wish to show people. The true method to combating apathy is to open our eyes and to embrace a true connection of East and West, rich and poor, realizing the breadth of diversity that surrounds us. The true method is forming an interconnected realm, open to learning from one another.

In the future I see myself as a writer, a novelist, or a playwright. I believe that the power of the pen can completely transform the world. Real change is brought through words, pen on paper, that affect people so much more deeply – a connection on a deeper level than thoughts or looks.

The secret to defeating apathy is embracing change itself as a progressive force to better humanity. In hope, I move forward.