One Hundred Years of...?

One hundred years of Christianity
One hundred years of Civilization
One hundred years of Modernity
One hundred years of Celebration

• celebrating Christ in our life, each day and everyday
• celebrating the love, peace and harmony it brought to us

The last line is a bit awkward, but there is no denying that we, the Zomi, have come a long way within just a century...

• from jungle dweller to urban crawler
• from head hunter to money hunter

There are hundreds of parameters to measure the speed of our transformation...and i guess, if we could measure in term of "kph", it must be faster than one of those F-1 cars, leaving trials of stories

• of miraculous transformation and structural destruction
• of churches, schools and rehab center
• for good and for worst

One hundred years is a relatively short period for a community to complete its transition and long enough for the future to take its roots. Are we satisfied with what we have seen so far, and what are the hits and misses?

If we could put away our differences to celebrate this occasion, we could also come together for our future's sake. It's time to reflect, analyse and assess our situation.

May God bless you all!

Centenary Greeting!

tags: zo, zomi, zogam, lamka

No Hope

Walk around the state of Manipur, you would find many young men –educated and uneducated; some may even belongs to an insurgent group and some could be a wrecked-out daily labourer; some walk with big dreams and empty pocket, and some are aimless wanderers. They all may speak different dialect; they may come from different background, tribes and upbringing. But one thing they have in common is that they don't know the roles, functions and duties of the Government towards them.

Go and ask them what they want the Government to do for them; most probably they won’t know how to answer, or what to say at all. But ask them about their lives, their families, and their backgrounds, you would most probably find hundred things that the Government can do for them.

Go and ask the old woman what sort of help she got from the Government, she would say nothing. Ask her what she wants from the Government; she would most probably have no idea. Ask her if she knew any welfare scheme for an old and poor woman like her, she won’t have a clue. Think of the amount the central and state governments have spent on all those welfare schemes.

Go and ask one young insurgent why he chose to be what he is, his answer, most probably would be he had nothing else to do at home. Then, ask yourself 'why' he had nothing at all to do at home and think of 'what' he can do and 'why' he can’t do what you think he can do, then, you will know who failed them.

For a lot of wronged youths, joining one or the other insurgent groups has become the sole viable option to vent their discontentment, and demand redressal because they feel they are being denied a fair treatment. They may never knew in which way they are being wronged, but at least they know how to compare their situation with youth their age of other states or countries, and they could clearly see the differences. They may never be able to tell you eloquently what they are deprived of, but you don’t need to be a social scientist to know what they are deprived of.

Their feelings of discontentment and humiliation make them become an easy fodder for insurgent group who had been waiting for this opportunity. It’s high time the government wake-up and perform the duties of a government.

It may be difficult to bring awareness to people who had resigned to their fate, and waking up a government that pretend to be as deaf as a statue and as mute as the Chief Minister himself. But then it has to be done, in one way or the other.

tags: zo, zomi, zogam, lamka

WILL SOMEONE APOLOGIZE TO ME FOR '97?

Recently I read about a series of significant historical apology made by leaders for something that was done many years ago like the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Aborigines for inflicting grief, suffering and loss that happened more than half a century ago. And, that get me to thinking if I can ever expect anyone at all to apologize to me for what happened in ’97, and for its aftermath, the consequences and scars it left on my life?

They said that an apology is the first-step towards starting any kind of healing process. And for sure, even after a decade, I’m still nursing those consequences. Every time I cursed my lot, I can trace its root to ’97 –for throwing me out of school and out of my normal routine of life; for taking away my home and friends, for filling my childhood memories with horrible images and thus, stealing my childhood.

I am not the only one affected. There are more, much more, who were at critical stages of their life at that time, and who, otherwise, have been promised much by life but could not achieve just because of what happened. Those people deserve an apology even much more than me.

First of all let me clear that I’m not referring to us apologizing to them or vice versa (if that is possible it will be superb). But for the time being I’m referring to something like a father to son apology. Some of us may argue if an apology is needed at all, saying that we all had gone through the same situation, or that we were only defending ourselves or that there is no reason for us to apologize since it’s not our fault.

It is true that we needed to protect ourselves particularly at that time and especially in view of the inherent apathy of our state government. But who are we protecting when we started killing people of our own or when we extorted, harassed and exploited the very people that we were/are supposed to be protecting?

It’s very well if you argued that we were left with no choice or option but to strike back. It may sound a bit cliché but there always is choice and options if we want. I am not saying that we could avoid it or the situation could have been handled in a better way, but I am saying that we could have mitigated its impact better especially among the younger generation, and don’t let its effect, especially the psychological aspect, linger on for so long. By the way, they says it takes two to tango, so what did we do, consciously or unconsciously, for them to do what they did?

It is also true that we all went through the same ’97. But no, CAPITAL NO, it was NOT the same situation that we went through in ’97. You and I were at totally different footing at that time and we are not the same either now; our socio-economic status were not the same; our conditions were not the same; our losses were not the same; its impact on the region, village, family and individual were not the same either. In fact, some of us even gained from it, when some of us lost everything… Under no parameter can this be called the same!

You may not want to admit it, but ’97 does have an impact on each one of us, and most likely, in the negative way. You may be trying to see the bright side and counting your blessing or thanking your luck for surviving it but you have to admit that you could have been more than what you are now if not for what happened in ’97.

But the problem is who will apologize. Will our respective community leaders take responsibility and apologize? Well, we all doubt that so much it almost sound funny! So where do we start? You and I can very well apologize to each other, but still, someone, some people, with authority and claim will still owe us an apology. And I am not sure if I would ever hear that in my life time.

I have no claim to represent or have authority to speak for anyone other than me. So I am going to speak for myself and start by saying –

I APOLOGIZE FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU IN
’97!

Will you too apologize to me… please?

No Tourist Season For Lamka?

Recently my Boss had to tour the North-East for a series of pre-bid meetings. Imphal was her last-stop and she said she might visit CCPur (Lamka, we call it) if I can suggest something worth seeing there. I sheepishly scratched my head not exactly sure what to suggest.

The holidayer to Manipur that I knew of, come in two seasons. The first batch started as soon as the summer holidays started and ends just before school/college re-opened. They are mostly college students or families with school going kids. The second batch started from early December and ended in January. These winter holidayer are mostly servicemen and women or family without children. These people are not the typical tourist, they are holidaying back home.

To be very honest, I don’t remember ever seeing hordes of well-heeled tourists or back-packers in the street of CCPur. Well, Khuga dam is no Hoover dam, and our patchy hills and mountains are not the Nilgiris. And as for marketing our tribal identity, just remember, we don’t exactly live in the jungle any more and girls in hot-pants do not exactly portray the kind of tribal image people may expect. Even today, the few ‘strange face’ that are occasionally seen in our street are there only on the invitation of our churches or are there to visits or inspect one of our many rehab centres.

Well, Gamnuam Home, Shalom Rehab, etc. are not the type of tourist attractants we want. But, for a starter we can develop a botanical garden which will not only attract tourist but also preserve our much folk-lored but evidently endangered orchids. We can also develop a dedicated market for out tribal handicraft from cane, bamboos works to our various colorful shawls, etc. And to develop that, we don’t even need the government; we can use the people participatory approach involving the communities in the process through the NREGS. All we need is someone or an institution to lead and do all the planning.

CCPur seems to scarce rather than attract tourist, and we have to change that. We may not have much to offer that will compel visitors to stay the night, but we can at least develop something that will make CCPur a ‘must-stop’ for every visitor to Manipur.

tags: zo, zomi, zogam, lamka