A single Change in Community

Community is the amalgam of individuals of several behaviors and various thoughts, brought together at one point. Individuals constitute families, families make societies and societies give birth to communities. To live with peace and contentment in a community requires certain valiant efforts from each and every individual of that community. There are some necessary elements that guarantee the satisfied survival of a community. They are unity, freedom, education and justice. Among these essential ingredients, some are what we call, ‘basic’ ones that are education and freedom.



Now if we take a bird eye’s view of the numerous communities present in the third world countries, we will clearly see the problems confronting the under developed communities. Poverty, hunger, illiteracy, despair and in result hopelessness, dejection and ultimately suicide! Terrorism is also a big threat that is eating away these third world communities, like termites to wood. There needs to be a ‘change’ to counter all these things, ‘one’ change. If I talk of my community, that is also a part of third world and under developed countries, I speak about my country. To me, my country is the community in which I am living. If I am to change ‘one’ thing in ‘my’ community, that would definitely be a factor that could have a big impact, of course a positive one, on the overall condition of my community.



‘If’ is the true word to represent imagination, in which one can cross every boundary and perform every task. Imagination is the flight of mind that infuses an enthusiasm and will to make something happen. Being a patriot and having an emotional attachment to my community, if I had to change only one thing, I would take such a basic thing that would stir the very foundation of my community that is currently listed among the under-dogs. That significant, in fact the most crucial matter is the Education. Education, to me, means the spread of academic knowledge, literacy and awareness among people.



Education not only means the study of the given curriculum by the students, but it also stands for the extension of the know-how of basic human rights and duties to become a good citizen. But this not at all means that the literacy and academics should be ignored and schools and colleges should be replaced by cultural training centers, nor does it, in any way, tends to reduce the significance of primary and secondary education. In fact this initial and basic education provides a base to all other pillars that become the part of the grand edifice of an individual’s personality. These literate and educated individuals only can form an ideal, thriving and prosperous community. In a community like mine, where the literacy rate is as low as 30 percent, what can be expected to be the outcome? To make it worse, these 30 percent contains more than 23 percent males. So therefore, it becomes evident that the literacy ratio between men and women is 1 to 7 in favor of men!

Napoleon once said, “Give me good mothers, I will provide you a righteous nation”.



And if the mothers themselves are uneducated, ignorant and illiterate, a little hope is all that one can have for that nation.



My choice of picking up ‘Education’ as the main thing to be changed in my community is because, to me, education is the weapon and tool through which nations can rise. History is full of examples that strongly represent and favour my point of view. The whole of the Europe, China, United Kingdom, the United States of America, all of them are nowadays considered to be the superpowers of the world. Only because they are powerful in terms of resources, powerful in terms of industries, in terms of economy and all these dominating sectors are great only because of powerful and potent Education system.

Highlighting the importance of education, Mr. Tony Blair, the present prime minister of England, once said, “Ask me my three main priorities for the government, and I will tell you: Education, Education and Education”.



So, it is an established fact that education ‘is’ really important, in fact, the most important. I am looking forward to the consequences if I change the literacy rate of my country from 35-40 percent to 85-90 percent! I am not trying to sound superficial, rather I am just trying to be optimistic, and to be optimistic towards a positive change in your community, is the first thing that you will need in the way of a successful journey towards the destination of really achieving it. Now for the present situation, as the literacy rate has risen up to 90 percent, the consequences would be exhilarating and wonderful for my community. Following through the results of transforming into a well-educated, well-read and cultured community, I will discuss each change brought by this literary change, one by one.



First of all, if we have more educated people, it means that we have more doctors and more doctors mean that now more people of my community would get proper treatment, if more people are being treated suitably, it means a much healthier community in physical!



That is just a beginning. Just imagine, if we have more learned people, it means that the youth of my community is well taken care of. Better teachers are provided to them with better guidance, giving them a better path of life to follow. And as the youth holds the future of a community, it means a much better future for my community. On the other hand, if we have more literate people, the awareness among them about family planning and its benefits is widespread. If they understand it well, it means less birth rate and in turn less population growth! Bingo! That is the one big problem of third world countries, which now gets eliminated from my community as a result of increasing the literacy rate. Consequently, my community now enters the list of developing communities.



Now from another side of the picture, if we have more intellectual people, it means more knowledgeable businessmen. The greater the number of erudite business executives, the more prospering the business sectors, and the better the economic position of my community. The negative trade balance starts decreasing, exports rise and imports reduce, and here we have a well-established economy of my community! That is the problem number two of the under-developed communities that the government does not have enough resources to spend upon the people. And now, with the help of only one change, the economic position gets better and the people of the community begin receiving its benefits.



If we have more educated and schooled people, it means greater number of well-trained and skilled labour, expansion of industry and then creation of more job opportunities and in return, the end of unemployment! Problem number three swept out of the community! Total employment means regular money circulation to every single individual of my community, which means a community without any needy or poor! Jesus! The most important problem of every underdeveloped community, the root cause of thousands of other nuisances, ‘poverty’ is eliminated. Thanks a million to ‘education’! No poverty means no robberies, no thefts, no suicides, no murders, and no despondency among the people, a peaceful, law-abiding and safe community to live in. In short, a Heaven!



No poverty also means the end of terrorism, the biggest threat facing the entire world community nowadays. Because poverty is the main cause of terrorism that forces poor and dejected people to make up their minds for suicide bombing in exchange of a big amount to be paid to their families by the masterminds. End of terrorism means end of war, tragedy, suffering and pain and most importantly the end of fear! An intrepid, courageous and brave community, only because of one change, the education!



That is not all, as I explained that the education means awareness and once the awareness has arrived, the consequences can be charismatic. Just see, a fully cultivated and enlightened community means the rising sense of responsibilities. It means no ‘throwing out the junk out of the car-window’, no mess, no garbage on the roads and consequently, a clean and neat community. A cleaner community means no diseases due to street garbage. Awareness means the increasing sense of caring for environment, and it further leads to extra plantation and minimised air pollution. Awareness among business executives and industrialists means no disposing of wastes into the rivers and a safer marine life and natural environment. More education also means more efficient scientists who would find ways to eliminate the pollution completely. This two prong effort means the end of pollution from my community! Clean and pure air to breathe in and a pollution free community, the dream of every individual. And not to forget that all these are the boons and benefits of only one change of education in the community.



As a consequence of a scholarly community, the development in the fields of modern technology would also be swift. As a result, more mechanization, and less physical work for human beings to do, which means more time for relaxation for the people of my community. More spare time means the time to think good about their other community members. For parents, more time is available for their children. For youth, more time is available to take care of their old family members; more time to relax, means more time to think of love and affection towards others. In short, a more loving and caring community and it is because of the spread of education and awareness.



If this change occurs, let us see the consequences of it on the image of my community to the outside world. Just visualize, with thriving businesses, flourishing economy and no terrorism; with thousands of scholars in every field and with huge development in the technology sector, with cleanliness and safety, with care and love, who idiot will not admire such a fabulous community? So, the education, in this way, will propagate the soft image of my community outside, which is an immediate demand nowadays. This broadcast and advertisement of the community would attract tourists from all over the world and with them, would come foreign investment and foreign exchange that would further strengthen the developing rate and condition of my community. It directly means more investment by the government on the infrastructure for the betterment of the people, which means rising standards of living of the community people.



To sum up, education is the factor that can provide us with the ideal community. If this change occurs in my community, following through the consequences, my community will be ranked among one of the most successful communities of the world.



As far as the idea, that ‘is all this possible?’ Or ‘can this change occur in a community like mine?’, is concerned, I personally feel that what we need to have is the courage, determination and  the will-power to perform a task and that will be the moment when everything will be clear and easy for us.



This topic, with the word ‘if’ in it, makes this piece of writing a bit imaginative, but I am sure that once this thing changes in my community, the results will be beguiling and fascinating, because we can never rise until we see clearly and we cannot see clearly until we leap out of the darkness of ignorance and illiteracy. The moment we are free of this beast of unawareness, will be our moment of glory, as education makes people easy to lead but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave, and if we are not enslaved, we are free and successful.



In this way the life of my community, my family and myself, will be much better than before!