Light of Peace

Today our world is full of crisis and conflicts. The violence has spread to all the nooks and corners of the globe. People dying of hunger and starvation in countries like Ethiopia, Somalia and Western Sahara, the tribes annihilating their rivals in a bid to achieve ethnic cleansing in places like Congo and Rwanda, innocent Palestinian men, women and children being butchered in Gaza and West Bank by Israeli jets and tanks, the marriage and funeral gatherings being targeted by NATO aircraft with sophisticated weapons mistaking them as Taliban, and then the matter being brushed aside terming it as collateral damage and the bodies of Pakistani and Iraqi citizens being blown to pieces by the suicide bombers every now and then.

As the electronic media has grown in size and sophistication and is quite free now, almost all the violence and conflicts are shown to the public instantly on occurrence. At times even the live footage is shown which is disgusting and awesome to observe. The research conducted by the psychologists reveal that a constant display of such images creates negative impact on the mental health of the viewers. These images create depression, anxiety and at times insomnia in the persons. This has a more pronounced effect on the youth and small children.

As far as youth is concerned they are already under tremendous mental and emotional pressures due the problems of modern living. The people, particularly the youth in third world countries, are already facing acute problems of joblessness, price-hike, corruption, insecurity, absence of rule of law and violence. Once they frequently see these nasty images, it only adds to their frustration. A frustrated youth of course cannot contribute positively towards the well being of society. Smaller children are more prone to the ill effects. They even do not understand what all is this. Once they grow up in such an environment, they may develop a psyche that accepts all this violence as a norm and routine matter. This will definitely be a dangerous situation for our future generations.

We have to live in this modern age that has given us marvelous facilities but at the same time we have to protect ourselves from its adverse effects. Then what should we do? Do we impose curbs and limitations on our free media? Should we switch off our TV sets? No, the free media is the essence of democracy. It plays pivotal role in creating awareness among the masses regarding what all is happening around us. As a matter of fact all the present rhetoric against war and in favor of peace is just because of free and independent media. Switching off of TV is neither possible nor advisable. The only conceivable remedy is to keep your young children away from the access of violent images. More over the parents and the teachers must try to ward off the ill effects of these images through motivation and effective teachings. The well qualified psychologists and educationists must be consulted on this issue so that they are able to see the light of peace at the end of the tunnel.