Ashiqur Rahman :
The word humanity comes from the Latin word humanitas which means human nature and kindness. Humanity includes, in general, all the humans all over the world but it can also refer to the kind feelings humans often have for each other. Activities of humans reveal if there is any humanity in them or not. When someone asks for money to help starving children, they are appealing to your sense of humanity. Your response to the appeal proves if you have humanity or not. Paulo Freire, a Brazilian politician and educationist, said, “No one can be authentically human while he/she prevents others from being so”.
God creates everything but humans are special among all of the creations of God. Human being can talk, they have extraordinary brains, innovative power, hands to work and heart to love which make us different from other creatures. The features of humanity include humility, patience, love, unity, equality, nobility, honesty and companionship. As we are humans, we have some rules to follow. We have to be polite and disciplined in our behaviours and activities. Human beings should show love and kindness towards humans and other creatures as God has created all of us and He loves us all too. S.T. Coleridge said, “He prayeth best, who loveth best, all things both great and small; for the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all”. Helping others in times of need is humanity; there is a song sungby Bhupen Hazarika, “Manush manusher jonno, jibon jiboner jonno, ektu shohanubhuti ki manush pete pare na” which stands if translated into English”Humans are for humans, life is for life’s sake, can’t humans get a little sympathy from other human beings?”
The modern world is complicated and the recent inhumane activities show that humanity is fading away from this world because of greed, lack of proper education and because of change in mental set up. There are different kinds of greed – greed for land, property, money, power, status and so on. People without proper education become more inhuman because in most cases they cannot differentiate between good and evil. Lack of proper education does not mean uneducated human being, it means they are not humanized. Many people fight, quarrel and engage in different conflicts in the name of religion although no religion supports any kinds of ill feelings and violence against others. All these kinds of fightings and conflicts are devoid of humanity. Does every human see other humans as a human? Sometimes some people judge other people by their attire or money they have. We are getting far away from human or animal rights.
If we look back in recent years, we can see many conflicts occurred in the world. Israel and Palestine conflict in 2015 is one of them that was severely criticized by people. So far as my knowledge goes, this conflict started from 1920 when Israelis and Palestinian Arabs struggled to achieve the civil, political and armed power and it turned into full-scale in 1947-48 civil war in mandatory Palestine. Israel attacked on Palestine to occupy a place named Gaza and the war is continuing till today. Thousands of people were killed by the Israeli fighters, we do not see any humanity in the fighting and killing of innocent people thereand not only in war but we can also see inhumanity in our daily life. Many home aids, especially children are being tortured by the owner of the house, even many wives/husbands are being tortured by their husbands/wives mentally and sometimes physically. Humanity is so faded away that if someone is tortured in front of others, people do not usually come to rescue the victim in fear of being trapped in trouble.
Mahatma Gandhi, father of India, said, “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty”. Recently, British media entitled the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina as “The Mother of Humanity”. Millions of the Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh because of tortures by Myanmar army. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given them places to stay, food to eat and medical support to survive. Though there are a huge number of people devoid of humanity, there are some very nice people alive who are ready to help the victims, needy people.
A.P.J Abdul Kalam said, “Science is a beautiful gift to humanity; we should not misuse it”. This gift can be used to beautify human beings but Science is being used to harm people. Making and using nuclear bombs, Missiles and other weapons are not anyway support humanity. Our experiences show that they are used to destroy humans.
Humanity can be practiced through educational institutions. Education is the base of human’s development. Without education a human being is just like other animal although heredity and environment play an important role in the development and growth of children and their mental setup. A human child grows up in natural and social environment. In the social environment they (child) learn formally and informally. Educational institutions like schools, colleges, universities are great places to learn behaviour, attitude, patience, love for others, unity, communication, empathy, relationship building, networking, honouring others, humility, honesty, stress and anger management, resilience, forgiveness and forgetting and many other personal qualities. Whenever we talk about humanity, human personality comes first; educational institutions help to develop a good personality of a person. Teachers are great mentors and helpful persons who can help to become better human beings. Sir Ken Robinson claimed that, “Teaching is an art and teachers are Artistes”. A teacher should notice what students do, what they say, how they behave so that a teacher can rectify their students mistakes and thus enabling students to avoid bad behaviours. Humanity and soft skills both share common features.
Soft skills are interpersonal skills which encompass both personality traits that can be felt but cannot be measured or rated. Soft-skills are consciously practised by the teachers in some of the western educational institutions; we should also practise soft skills in order to be humanized.
In conclusion, I would like to say that we are humans by birth but humanity is a great virtue which needs to be achieved throughout one’s life through practices.
The word humanity comes from the Latin word humanitas which means human nature and kindness. Humanity includes, in general, all the humans all over the world but it can also refer to the kind feelings humans often have for each other. Activities of humans reveal if there is any humanity in them or not. When someone asks for money to help starving children, they are appealing to your sense of humanity. Your response to the appeal proves if you have humanity or not. Paulo Freire, a Brazilian politician and educationist, said, “No one can be authentically human while he/she prevents others from being so”.
God creates everything but humans are special among all of the creations of God. Human being can talk, they have extraordinary brains, innovative power, hands to work and heart to love which make us different from other creatures. The features of humanity include humility, patience, love, unity, equality, nobility, honesty and companionship. As we are humans, we have some rules to follow. We have to be polite and disciplined in our behaviours and activities. Human beings should show love and kindness towards humans and other creatures as God has created all of us and He loves us all too. S.T. Coleridge said, “He prayeth best, who loveth best, all things both great and small; for the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all”. Helping others in times of need is humanity; there is a song sungby Bhupen Hazarika, “Manush manusher jonno, jibon jiboner jonno, ektu shohanubhuti ki manush pete pare na” which stands if translated into English”Humans are for humans, life is for life’s sake, can’t humans get a little sympathy from other human beings?”
The modern world is complicated and the recent inhumane activities show that humanity is fading away from this world because of greed, lack of proper education and because of change in mental set up. There are different kinds of greed – greed for land, property, money, power, status and so on. People without proper education become more inhuman because in most cases they cannot differentiate between good and evil. Lack of proper education does not mean uneducated human being, it means they are not humanized. Many people fight, quarrel and engage in different conflicts in the name of religion although no religion supports any kinds of ill feelings and violence against others. All these kinds of fightings and conflicts are devoid of humanity. Does every human see other humans as a human? Sometimes some people judge other people by their attire or money they have. We are getting far away from human or animal rights.
If we look back in recent years, we can see many conflicts occurred in the world. Israel and Palestine conflict in 2015 is one of them that was severely criticized by people. So far as my knowledge goes, this conflict started from 1920 when Israelis and Palestinian Arabs struggled to achieve the civil, political and armed power and it turned into full-scale in 1947-48 civil war in mandatory Palestine. Israel attacked on Palestine to occupy a place named Gaza and the war is continuing till today. Thousands of people were killed by the Israeli fighters, we do not see any humanity in the fighting and killing of innocent people thereand not only in war but we can also see inhumanity in our daily life. Many home aids, especially children are being tortured by the owner of the house, even many wives/husbands are being tortured by their husbands/wives mentally and sometimes physically. Humanity is so faded away that if someone is tortured in front of others, people do not usually come to rescue the victim in fear of being trapped in trouble.
Mahatma Gandhi, father of India, said, “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty”. Recently, British media entitled the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina as “The Mother of Humanity”. Millions of the Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh because of tortures by Myanmar army. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given them places to stay, food to eat and medical support to survive. Though there are a huge number of people devoid of humanity, there are some very nice people alive who are ready to help the victims, needy people.
A.P.J Abdul Kalam said, “Science is a beautiful gift to humanity; we should not misuse it”. This gift can be used to beautify human beings but Science is being used to harm people. Making and using nuclear bombs, Missiles and other weapons are not anyway support humanity. Our experiences show that they are used to destroy humans.
Humanity can be practiced through educational institutions. Education is the base of human’s development. Without education a human being is just like other animal although heredity and environment play an important role in the development and growth of children and their mental setup. A human child grows up in natural and social environment. In the social environment they (child) learn formally and informally. Educational institutions like schools, colleges, universities are great places to learn behaviour, attitude, patience, love for others, unity, communication, empathy, relationship building, networking, honouring others, humility, honesty, stress and anger management, resilience, forgiveness and forgetting and many other personal qualities. Whenever we talk about humanity, human personality comes first; educational institutions help to develop a good personality of a person. Teachers are great mentors and helpful persons who can help to become better human beings. Sir Ken Robinson claimed that, “Teaching is an art and teachers are Artistes”. A teacher should notice what students do, what they say, how they behave so that a teacher can rectify their students mistakes and thus enabling students to avoid bad behaviours. Humanity and soft skills both share common features.
Soft skills are interpersonal skills which encompass both personality traits that can be felt but cannot be measured or rated. Soft-skills are consciously practised by the teachers in some of the western educational institutions; we should also practise soft skills in order to be humanized.
In conclusion, I would like to say that we are humans by birth but humanity is a great virtue which needs to be achieved throughout one’s life through practices.
(The writer is a 2nd year undergraduate student studying Education at Govt. Teachers’ Training College, Dhaka.)
