We matter

I was cycling to school last week when a car from a side street approached. I thought the car would stop, as I had the right to cycle further, but the car didn’t. I was able to steer out to the street and got hit in my back wheel. Adrenaline pumping through my body allowed me to respond fast and not fall and glance quickly to see that the driver was a young male. What I didn’t expect to catch was that he was shocked. I stopped my bike to find my bag dragging on the side of my bike. Anger was started to course through my body. While I stopped, a little boy on his bike approached and stopped to ask if I was hurt. I managed to utter out that I was okay. The driver had rolled his window down and said he was coming. I wanted to scream and tell him that that was not necessary. Obviously I had survived, but he came and the little boy went away. The driver apologized a couple times, asked if I was hurt and made sure that my bike was still working. His concern and guilt watered my anger and I told him that since it was morning, he ought to watch out for the students going to school. He apologized once more and we parted our ways.

I didn’t yell at him, didn’t call him out for anything and I didn’t even ask him why he didn’t stop. That didn’t matter anymore. Yes, he should have watched out, but at least he had the decency to stop his car and make sure that the person hit was alive and fine.

Traffic accidents have reduced the last couple of years, but people still die or are seriously injured. The main causes of traffic accidents is exceeding the speed limits, driving too fast in a particular place, such as a bend, not paying attentions to other road users, misjudging other person’s path or speed, inexperience, carelessness and recklessness.

When I walked into school I saw the little boy and we smiled a toothless smile. That morning started off bad, but that smile made me realize something. I matter. The boy didn’t know me and neither did the driver, but I mattered enough to be asked if I was okay. Sometimes this world feels very cold, cruel and detached. Humans get hurt, killed and everybody reports them in numbers. ‘’2 bikers got hit by a car’’, ‘’50 deaths in this country’’. These reports don’t mention that these were humans, maybe a mother, a father, brother, sister and more. Just a number. And that little smile acknowledged that I was okay and mattered. I was more than a number to the world population. I was a life.

So next time you participate in traffic, whether that be as a driver or pedestrian, try to stay within the speeding limits, pay attention and if anything goes wrong, don’t run off, but stop and make sure that everyone is okay. Every life matters.

Peace is a façade

We talk about peace in so many politics interviews, we invest money in sending troops to war countries, and we donate money to the poor on the other side of the world when they have been struck by a disaster and yet when people leave their poor, corrupt and or war-zone countries, protests arise from every corner. ‘’They are criminals!’’, ‘’They are not one of us!’’, ‘’Why should we have to pay for their living?’’ are questions that have been shouted many times and yet they never seem to get answered. Well they will today, in this post.

Many teenagers drink and smoke, does that mean all teenagers drink and smoke? Many black people are good in sports, does that apply to all black people? NO, IT DOES NOT! In that same way you cannot stereotype all refugees to be criminals. Criminality does not run in your veins and it certainly is not inheritable. Many do fall in someone else’s footsteps, but that is the result of nurture, not nature.

We are in born in a universe with the only planet, so far, providing life. We are all one kind, we are all human, but people love to divide themselves into nationalities, ethnicities, age groups and other categories. The good thing about this is that people feel more connected to each other, but other people get disconnected. So the answer of the second question is: yes, they are one of us. They are human. Just like me and just like you.

We pay taxes, money that the government uses for all kinds of goals. It could be for building houses you might never live in, constructing streets you might never walk on and investing in new technologies you might never use. We are paying every day for someone else’s living. You have a right to go to school, to work and live your life the way you want and in that same way those refugees have the same rights, because they are human. Humans have cared and helped each other for centuries. Children, per example, get fed, washed and cared of until one day they can take care of themselves. So in that same way we have to help those refugees.

I don’t believe in world peace, but I do believe in help, love and caring. Many of those refugees risked their lives in hopes of living a better one in the Western world. The least we could do is give them a chance. Let them learn your language, let them go to school, college, work etc. Educate them for one day they will be working in your country, paying taxes, helping the economy and not only that, but perhaps helping another human.

You are human, but don’t forget your humanity.