The Slave Ship
Joseph Mallord William Turner
1840
oil on canvas
"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot .... There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
-Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot
The recent events that have been happening in my home, The Philippines, have been heartbreaking and terrifying. President elect Duterte has waged a war on drugs where he calls out to "slaughter them all", to kill alleged drug pushers and users and anyone suspected of crime. Extrajudicial killings and murder have been rampant ever since he took the presidency with a count of more than 5600 people slain. People are all killed without due process or evidence of their alleged crimes, anyone can be shot in cold blood. It has also been shown that figures of drug users have been skewed and manipulated to justify the "war on drugs". The main victims of this war are poor people who have no means to protect themselves. While people with wealth can sit comfortably without fearing for their lives.
Alleged drug users are not evil people, people who have committed crimes are not evil people, they are simply people who have made mistakes. There are certain situations where one is pushed to act on their impulses to commit crimes because of desperation not because of purposely wanting to do the wrong thing. These killings are unfair because they rob a person of their lives. People deserve a chance to be understood and to change for the better. People have to face the consequences of their crime and actions but these consequences should be fair and just. Killing someone immediately for doing something wrong is a lazy and short term response to a deeper problem. In the long run you'll just rack up a higher body count and have a population controlled by fear.
I heavily condemn this reign of terror. It's filled with pain, anger, hate, grief, fear, and suffering. What hurts me the most with all that's happening is the blatant disregard for human life. It's so easy for people to take someone's life or clamor for the murder of others. I can't comprehend how people can take a human life so lightly. As Carl Sagan puts it, "Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another." Life is precious, it's beautiful,, and the only one we'll ever have and to take that away from someone forcefully is the gravest sin of all.
Instead of succumbing to fear and hate we should be empathetic and compassionate to the plights of others. This "war on drugs" is not even justice anymore but cold blooded murder. Drug use should be treated with understanding and rehabilitation not by taking lives. Evidence from other countries that have attempted to wage a war on drugs have shown that it simply does not work.
Each life is valuable and should be given importance. The selectivity on who to pass judgement on and to kill is reminiscent of what George Orwell wrote, "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others" Human lives are being treated as something disposable and of no value when in fact it is the one we should be protecting.
I hope people start speaking out and standing up to these atrocities. We have to end this nightmare because if we don't stop it now many more lives will be lost. Things right now are not okay and it's horrible helplessly watching all these things unfold. The best we can do right now is to continue campaigning for human rights and speak out against injustices.
Sources: http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/154716-duterte-6-months-office-shake-up?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=referral