Growing up with orphans

I grew up with orphan boys and girls in a village in Bangladesh, and some of them looked after and cared for me when I was a little boy. Although I was relatively privileged and my family ran the orphanage, I was taught from the beginning that we are all equal and that we should respect the orphans like everyone else. Not for a moment did I ever feel or act superior to them.

I developed intimate friendships with many of the orphans and learnt much about and internalised their pains and sorrows. I learnt that they also dreamt and had aspirations like those who were similarly privileged as me. But I knew and they knew that it would be a near impossibility for their dreams to become a reality.

Powerfulness/powerlessness

All my life, I worked to create level playing fields for everyone, because the powerful – not all – take advantage of the powerless, who are helpless in the face of the designs of the powerful. From early on in my life, I saw the awful interplay between the powerful and the powerless, the consequences of which made me feel powerlessly sick to the core.

I worked in many disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods in the UK, witnessing for myself the helplessness of powerlessness. The powerless developing their capacities and learning to defend their communities were delightful sights that brought joy to me on many occasions.

I do not seek to empower anyone or any group over others, to the point that they will overtake them and become the new oppressors. I only seek to create a level-playing field for everyone and every group – whether based on gender, ethnicities, faiths, cultures, races, economy, military, education and so on – so that everyone can defend and grow themselves without being stamped on.

I do not seek the domination of my group or any group over any other group, because power by one group over another group dehumanises both, although the dominant group enjoys the benefits at the expense of the dominated.

Everyone is unique and has limitless capacities and potentials, but life chances, systems, privileges, racism, sexism, and so on determine what and how much of our capacities and potentials are developed, and correspondently what we get out of life based on our wishes, desires and decisions. 

Let’s create a level-playing field for everyone

Let’s create a level-playing field for everyone, so that we can end injustice in the world and work towards realising more of our human potentials.