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Being the Voice of the Voiceless or: Are we preferentially deaf?

In our lives, we often survive under the delusion of knowing everything, until some defining moments bring awareness to our ignorance. One such incident occurred to me on Friday the 21st Sept. 2018, in Granada, Spain. My friend Madhu and I were recently in Granada to participate in a weeklong Artificial Intelligence conference. On the last day of our stay, we were strolling across the stone clad streets of the beautiful downtown exchanging our thoughts on the venue, conference and the people. Lost in our conversation as we reached San Matias Realejo, a prominent street corner of the city, we found ourselves amidst a crowd. It was a mix of onlookers surrounding a small group of black attired, silent demonstrators. These silent protestors were wearing masks covering their faces and were holding laptop computers, which were displaying distressing videos of cruelty against a variety of animals. This public display raised several questions in our minds, so we began looking for someone who could explain to us what it was all about in English.

Fortunately, we became face to face with Dr. Patricia Vitorique, a young medical graduate who graduated from the Universidad de Granada Medicina, an active Member of the Community Activismo Antiespecista Granada. She answered our questions with confidence and clarity. Madhu recorded our brief conversation “see attached video”. Patricia told us that she has been an activist since her childhood and always looked for opportunities to protect defenseless animals. Their computer screens displayed awful scenes of severely injured bulls and grievously hurt Matadors during bullfights. Other screens portrayed tortured dogs and other animals harmed by heartless human acts her group was working to prevent. She also told us, “Every living being has compassion, and our group is working to activate that dormant compassion.”

It became an instant motivation for us to relate with their cause. She managed to get us masks, and we symbolically participated in the protest. Later, we walked back to the hotel, still struggling to grapple with the afterthoughts of our encounter.

Being an Indian and a Jain, the concept of non-violence was drilled deep within my mind since my childhood, but a few minutes of exposure to this protest and the brief conversation with Patricia added a new dimension to my understanding of the issue of giving voice to the voiceless in a larger context, be they animal or human. I do not believe any living creature is voiceless; rather it is we human beings, who are preferentially deaf and are too preoccupied to pay attention to the unspoken language of the so-called voiceless.

My conversation with Patricia left me with several lessons:

-Young age is no bar to teaching you.

-There is an inherent compassion within each one of us.

-Activism brings one’s beliefs and feelings into action.

Dr. Pat Vitorique also told us that the reason the protestors were masking their identities, was because it was essential for them to avoid distraction from the cause.

We freely use the terms such as love, compassion, and empathy casually in our day-to-day conversations, with no idea of the depth it requires to understand and realize these terms. Translating these terms into my behavior would mean spending several life times for me.

Activism has a thin line of separation with aggression. Since an activist holds strong feelings about their cause, they can become vulnerable to becoming provoked by an insensitive response. However, with maturity and great forethought, they can instead become empowered with reason and understanding. They can also contain their agitation and deal with those who might take issue with their message with persistence and utmost patience. It is up to each and every one of us to lend our voices to those unable, or unwilling to do so.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love”- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mahendra Bhandari and Madhu Reddiboina joining the demonstration

Mahendra Bhandari (L), Patricia Vitorique (C), Madhu Reddiboina (R)

Mahendra Bhandari MD, MBA

drmbhandari.com

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