Shaken not Stirred !

Watching many old and new James bond movies during later part of last decade of the past millennium, the thing that impressed a lot was how Bond will ask his drinks to be made. “Shaken not Stirred”

So impressed that I had even asked my Mango shakes to be “shaken not Stirred” in a bond like style; just to realize later that mango shake need to be shaken, stirred and blended thoroughly to be enjoyed. But when you are young and fresh out of college who cares how the shake tasted; all that matters is how stylish you looked and how stylish you talk.

However now in 2015, a few weeks ago, when I woke up I saw the news of an earthquake impacting North West of India. My family lives there so I was worried. I called my parents and few friends, and the common message I got was, “Yes, it shook really badly, but we are fine” and life went on. The concerned notes in the morning changed to jokes about the earthquake on Facebook and whatsapp before twilight. Because the earthquake shook that part, but didn’t damage any. The jokes also showed that there were no knowledge or concern of the hundreds who were impacted in other parts of the world due to the same earthquake. So many people I know were shaken but not Stirred by the event.

That is what we have become, things happen all around us. And we witness them, live them but more than experiencing and contributing we want to take selfies and report it on Social media. Things that should stir us to the core, doesn’t even stir us a bit. Shake us yes; but have stopped stirring us and now all of a sudden “Shaken not Stirred” in this context has lost all style for me.  I will tell you why…

Earthquake and other Natural Calamities: We read them in news, we might experience some of them. Those who loose we offer a prayer or at times a small token in charity. But we rarely offer a part of ourselves. We switch from that news to another on our desktops quickly. We don’t even think how such events can be survived well till of course something like that hits us and stir our life. But until that happens, we are just Shaken not stirred!

Global Warming; what can one do about the Natural calamities more than preparing; isn’t it? However many of these are just an outcome of Global warming. A phenomenon that no one else but our generation is responsible for. We read about it; we debate about it; we counter theories by other theories. We show (and even brag about) our knowledge on the subject. But very rare we make the lifestyle changes that can help. Even if 20% of the human population starts to adopt some measures to inflict less damage to the environment; this phenomenon can be slowed and hopefully reversed if more join. But we are happy about knowing rather than doing. We know the damage it can cause as many reports, Articles, movies show us the ugly face of this problem. All those really shake us. We remain “shaken not stirred” to act.

Terrorism: Global Warming is still a big phenomenon and would need millions of people to make life style changes and also will need many corporations to join hands in reducing the damage (environment above financial gain). Doable but tough. However Terrorism is just a man created menace. How many people will raise their hands in the support of terrorism? I can bet no one; even the terrorists state themselves to be “rebels” as they even know that what they are doing is bad and damaging the world so they try to justify their actions by calling themselves rebels or supporters of some faiths etc. We read the stories, we feel horror and sorrow reading those and then we move to our day jobs forgetting that millions in the world are living a life full of horrors at the hands of terrorists. We brand people based on religion, color, attire, region etc giving fuel to the terrorist’s propaganda. We could change our thinking and our actions and make some changes to this situation if not for now then at least for future generations. We could, only if those news of crimes against mankind could stir us enough to act; but we remain “shaken not Stirred”

Intolerance: One may say, what I can do. The terrorism is the act of those others. I am fine, my folks are fine, my friends and the ‘clan’ or ‘creed’ I belong to is good. It is those others who all those nasty things, they should be screened and kept under watch from early age to ensure that they are not radicalized. Sadly, we are not fine, we still are promoting the “us versus them” ideology. Which is fanning the fire of intolerance. Intolerance which is growing throughout the World. One can always see through one’s own eyes of belief and anything that is not clear to that eye is considered wrong, but if we open our arms and hearts a bit more we are not too different from those others. We are just afraid and that causes lack of trust and then lack of tolerance. At some point this intolerance results in a criminal act fanning the fire on multiple sides and getting into lockdown modes and eventually terrorism. Differences are necessary for survival and growth. The day we learn that lesson and teach that to our next generation, that acceptance will naturally put intolerance to sleep. A scholar once said “existence of I and You is the start of violence” so if we start living as We. WE a lot more tolerant option than I and YOU. However what is happening in the World is exactly opposite. We are teaching intolerance to counter intolerance. We are cocooning our next to their own shells, not seeing those shells as prisons that will crush them one day. We condemn intolerance when those other show it, as their acts do shake us, but we ignore our own words and acts as we remain “shaken not stirred”

Greed/Crime/ School Shootings: That is very much in your hand, tolerance is very personal thing. But hey if the neighbor is not tolerant than why should I be? That is the mind set many, rather most get into. But now look at something more personal, Greed. Easy to claim that one doesn’t have that vice. However Greed is not only what was traditionally defined, amassing goods, learning for the sake of bragging, having the need to have the latest gadget and many other such items are the modern greed indicators. This greed leads to dissatisfaction and results in people ending up committing crime. Again one can wash ones hands off clean with that. But think, this same greed is transferred to the next generation as the only heritage. Heritage of hoarding and bragging. And then same dissatisfaction appears compounded by lack of direction and leading to confusion and ends up in kids inflicting damage to themselves or to someone else. Increase in children committing suicides and incidents of school shootings. Gun –Control a very easy solution for many to minimize the damaging impact of such states of mind on the society; but for others Gun-Control is nothing more than a political debate. 5 year olds getting killed in a school by a twenty something man in cold blood. A man who might have been crazy and wanted to inflict damage, but he couldn’t have done that if he didn’t have that easy access to many automatic guns. Or the lunatic who kills people in the Movie Theater and then booby-tarps his apartment to inflict even more damage. He could not have done a lot unless he had easy access to guns and ammo. Such ghastly incidents that can shake anyone, and it does shake us. But we stay Shaken not Stirred (not enough to act)  

Ironically while I was writing this two things happened, first was heavy rains and flooding in southern part of India, not too difficult to pin the responsibility on global warming for the rain, and drains clogged with plastic for flooding. Second was the insane terrorist attack in Paris, killing 129 people, ugly terrorism at its ugliest.

I wonder if these do not stir us to action what will?

How long will we be shaken and not stirred?

Hope we are stirred before our planet is irreversibly damaged and our next generation deeply scarred!