CORRUPTION OF THE MIND

In this sinful world we have to bear the news of a lot of vicious crimes. Those unbelievable headlines, those cinematic descriptions of crimes, unbearable pictures of the dead; how do they affect us? People often relish grazing the juicy details of a murder giving in to conspiracy theories floating around them. Some become outraged, some shrugs them off.

But do we ever try to understand that these crimes are the anomalies in the society resulting from some other problems. Do we want to understand the background of these crimes? How these crimes actually affect the surroundings, the relatives and the associates of the victims? If we bothered we could bring about a change.

For instance, the murder of the Rajshahi University professor, Dr S Taher Ahmed is the talk of the country now. His colleague is indicted for the crime and it is more shocking to learn that the motive was probably 'mere seniority' and a 'little financial gain'. This is the second murder of a professor in Rajshahi University during the last 13 months. Rajshahi University has been undersiege of corrupt politics since long. No doubt the politicizing of the recruitment process and installing politically motivated teachers have resulted in these heinous incidents.

Quddusi, one of Dr. Taher's colleagues writes:

"It calls for across-the-board overhauling of the total recruitment and promotion system in the universities, because if a few more of the nature of the accused teacher have already got in or are on the way to getting in, our fate is sealed."

Scribbles, A 14 year old blogger, a neighbor of the murdered professor writes:

"Outsiders – people outside of the campus – can’t even begin to feel anything that’s felt here. They can’t imagine what people here are going through.

I lived in the campus all my life. And it was the safest place in the world to me... now there’s a certain tension in the air that no one can ignore. At nights, I’m scared to look into the darkness around our house, afraid of what I might see there. My imagination goes wild, dreaming up dark figures crouching in the bushes, and masked men hunched behind the trees. There was a murder not three houses away. There’s no guarantee that it will stop there."

Should we continue to overlook the main problems and relish the news of the murders? How can we save ourselves from the anxieties and sense of fear?