A Short Conversation

Few years back on a fine starlit night on the bank of a river sitting next to a small campfire I had a short conversation with my childhood friends. The discussion emerged out of randomness as the topic was not a regular topic of our gossip. But the authenticity of the discussion is something I remember and how clearly that few mins chat described few things still amazes me that how the knowledge and solutions often comes from small openhearted trustful talks rather then in hefty argumentative long discussions.

The conversation began to answer a simple question .

 "What is the single most important thing that you think a nation should focus on or which the Govt. should provide for the betterment of the people and nations development ? " 

Its a question everyone can have and should have some thought sometimes.

All three of us in our late twenties have had a fair share of experience with life and people . We had experienced variety of events and witnessed different people and happenings. What came out of our three different minds were three different perspectives of the most important :-

• Food and healthcare   The underlying point here is that people are inherently good , given proper food and healthcare will result in healthy people who in their natural process of efforts will lead to a healthy nation. Every single person should have access to good nutrition and good healthcare. As the growth of a citizen is directly responsible for the growth of a country. The state of mind and the capabilities of human being are deeply dependent on the physical fitness of the person.  Hunger, malnutrition and low quality healthcare are the biggest threats to any country. Getting sick is still one of the biggest fears for many due to lack of availability and affordability of proper healthcare. No strong country can be build by hungry, weak and ailing citizens. So If govt. takes care of people, people will take care of the country.

• Education  The point here is that humans need training in the modern world and the same should be accessible to all.  Every single person needs to have a good education beyond mere literacy. An education system focusing on an overall development of the human mind is a necessary foundation for a strong country. Human society has come quite far from the primitive times and in the modern world to sustain and progress there is a lot of training that human children needs to go through. Let it be the basic school education, professional education, general social behavior, political behavior, law, taxation and many more. There are a lot of things that one should have understanding about so that one can become productive and responsible in the modern world.  Given this situation it is fundamentally important that each one should have access to quality education.

• Law and Order  This is another different angle and a very practical one too. Idea is let people handle what they eat and what they read and focus on providing a justified system of law and order. Although people are assumed to be inherently good , still it can not be denied that self interest often takes over societies interest. Moreover in a society where law enforcement is weak, where the corrupt meets prosperity and the honest suffers, in that society even the honest will eventually become corrupt. So a strong and justified Law which is equal for all, is the way where rather than expecting people to grow up and behave, we enforce the good behavior. If the criminals and the corrupt meet punishments and people believe in the justice system , the society will definitely move away from corruption and crime and towards prosperity and growth.

Although all three of us had different ideas of single most important point, what we arrived at were the three key points that are of foremost importance for any country. Each of the points can actually be elaborated to more meaningful outcomes and strategies but as I mentioned the conversation was short.

Although these do not form a complete comprehensive list and more people can have more thoughts, what amazes me about this short conversation between three regular young people is that in about 10 mins we outlined some of the key aspects of an ideal development policy. Which makes me believe that most of people know what should be done for betterment of country. That makes me wonder that perhaps our country does not need the illogical and argumentative and theatrical chats on the news channels, nor it needs the immature, abusive and blind propaganda driven social media feeds.

What is really needed is people to have such short conversations to build common belief and agenda then act together for the betterment of the country.