BUBBLES AND UNDERWATER TUNNELS

BUBBLES AND UNDERWATER TUNNELS – By Zainab Nurani

Is it a bubble?

Or is it an underwater tunnel?

The reason I pose this question is because I seek clarity as to the roles human beings play in the lives of their fellows. Perhaps I should illustrate my point with a story or two.

The first one is seemingly normal, and some of you may not see any reason to probe into your minds and over use your brain cells to depletion.

I was in the passenger seat of a vehicle a few days ago. And as is normal for any passenger, I was observing the world outside the window. Our vehicle stopped to let two schoolgirls cross the road. When they safely got to the footpath, one of the girls disposed of her empty lunch wrapper. She did it with such nonchalance and with an attitude of normalcy that this small gesture scared the living daylights out of me. Why?

Simple. Our global news and international bodies are quite loud and vehement as far as environmental protection and depletion is concerned. We all know a thing or two about this topic, no matter how begrudgingly we shake our heads. We are aware that plastic and polythene are non-biodegradable, meaning that they do not decompose in the soil, and are hence deemed unfriendly to our environment. In fact, there are reports by environment protection groups that reveal that Mombasa, my city, will be underwater in the next hundred years. My island under the sun will cease to exist.

And to be honest, what scared me was not a little schoolgirl throwing a wrapper on the street, but the fact that it has become okay to do so. The municipal garbage bin was a mere metre to her left!

In the girl’s defence, she was not the first person to litter that street. Nor was she thinking in the least about the environment. She was in her ‘bubble’.

In a person’s bubble, things like the environment, poverty and elections are insignificant. They have no major place. And if you were to ask that girl why she littered the street, she would probably be thinking, “What does the environment have to do with me, a primary school girl, anyway? And besides, one wrapper won’t deplete the ozone!” In our bubbles, the outside is hazy, unchartered and trifling. As long as we are safe within our bubbles of comfort, we are happy and satisfied.

But are we really?

Because you see, walls of a bubble are pretty delicate and fragile. What would, then, happen if that bubble were to burst?

The second story is rather personal, though it may seem fictitious. An obscure schoolmate of a close friend recently said some rather distasteful things about her to a group of her friends. Naturally, the word spread like wildfire and soon, my friend had no reputation whatsoever. Every move was judged according to the stories that had been, disastrously, doing the rounds.

If we allegedly live in these so called safety security bubbles, then why would my friend be affected by the gossip outside her bubble? And, more importantly, why would people believe things others said without first digging for the truth?

The simple answer is that we live not in these protective bubbles but within the strong walls of underwater tunnels, where the current is strong enough to blow a third person’s words your way, strong enough to rattle our very bones.

Or maybe we live in these bubbles, which then float through these submerged tunnels.

The real problem is not that, though. The true conundrum is whether anyone can spot the glaringly clear contradiction between my first example and my second one. Why is it that, within our bubbles, we are as ready as tax officers in tax season to jeopardize the lives of our own race of billions under the pretext of being dissociated to anything and everything outside our sphere of codes and understanding, while within those tunnels we take it upon ourselves to screw and unscrew the bolts holding together the lives of others? What, then, happened to our lack of concern?

We are humans because we can empathize with our folk. But it seems like evolution is finally playing its hand.

You may think that I sound nutty as a fruitcake, but I implore you to understand this idea. Not everyone will agree with me, but my question is, why not? Why not agree that we are the cause of our own destruction as a species?

In the first example, the street was already littered. I’m willing to bet that the first person who threw the first piece of litter on that street was not thinking about anyone else but himself. It did not concern him that people would be repelled from that road, as long as he had been rid of the litter. Had he been conscious enough to look beyond the short nose of his bubble, he may have had sense enough to throw that litter into a bin.

Human beings are social creatures. We neither are nor have ever been lone islands, weathering the storms of life’s ocean on our own. We have friends and families and acquaintances and colleagues. We thrive off of the energy we derive from others, same as others thrive off of the energy they derive from us. To be blinded by one’s own needs as to discount and downplay the bigger needs of the entirety of our society is simply inhuman, not selfish. Inhuman.

As for the second example, my friend still suffers a bullet holed reputation. Not because the words spoken about her were true, but because of the power of the current that swept these bits of decayed seaweed from one bubble to another.

Ultimately, the point I am trying to make is that if we can afford to stick our oars into the waters of society and shake things up to the detriment of people like my un-reputable friend, then we might as well pay an equal sum to stick our oars back into society’s massive currents and create waves big enough to benefit the world.

You may not think much of environmental degradation. But you will, once the earth, our natural home, gets covered in trash enough to fill our seas to the brim.

You may not think that elections have anything to do with you until a flavourless leader gets voted to office and starts to meddle with your life.

You may not have much thought for poverty while you eat pastries and sleep in warm beds but if you would take a night-time walk once in a while, you would see the number of people who call the streets their homes.

So why not make strides in these fields to help propel the society into a glorious future?

Why instead do we choose to use our influence to spread negative energy and hate and defamation and extremism?

As a student of law, such are the thoughts that keep me wide awake and blinking into the wee hours of the morning, because the truth is that the budding lawyer in me refuses to concede to a problem. Finding solutions to the crises that make human beings want to pull their brains out is what I thrive on.

However, there are some things, such as environmental protection and social growth, that need collective attention. Our five fingers bear witness to the fact that despite our differences and diversity, we need each other in order to excel and create the world we want to live in.

If there is one thing I have adamantly refused to learn from the ostriches of the Maasai Mara, it is the art of burying my head under the ground when a complication stands before me. Hiding under the grey cloud of ignorance and burying our heads deep into our respective bubbles will most certainly not make the obstacle disappear.

We are human. Certainly, we can do better!

In the end, we still inhabit our bubbles that grant us small bouts of security. But our bubbles float through underwater tunnels whose currents change too fast too soon. What you say or do in the safety of your bubble will somehow impact the lives of others.

So, to answer our first question, yes, it is a bubble. But not by its lonesome. It is, instead, stuck in an underwater tunnel.

We are all in bubbles, all of us struggling to navigate these underwater tunnels. We are meant to exist in unity, while being inimitably individual.

For this reason, it is of great importance that we put aside our political, cultural, religious and ethnic differences so that we may be able to hold ourselves and our leaders accountable in order to effect a positive change for generations to come.

And maybe someday, the future will puff up its chest and proudly declare that the past, our era, had pulled off something truly great. The power to impact the future in the best possible way is in our hands. All we need is unity in diversity and individuality. All we truly need is unity.

A unity of individuals.