What if we were to die today?

What would we respond to that?

If we were to die today, it seems unreasonable to stock up food, drinking water and other precious properties. Whatever we possess, it is nothing when all are to die. (Thank Gods that when the floods started to ravage the country in the middle of this year, shortage of food and drinking water was not acute. It was apparent shortly before waters hit Bangkok, showing how panic affluent people can be.) 

If we were to die today, we, people in Bangkok, need not to appreciate provincial people’s kindhearted remarks that they feel sorry for us. From a TV programme, an aunty in Maha Sarakham said people in her neighbourhood still can catch fish during floods, while people in Bangkok can’t. A group of villagers from Phitsanulok who were here to cook for evacuees also considered themselves luckier than us, as we don’t know how to live with waters.

Bangkok people consider themselves far luckier than provincial people. Bangkok is the centre of everything. We have shopping centres, all housing tuition centres aside from activities, products and other things that enhance learning experience and “knowledge”. What provincial people have? Provincial kids have to come to Bangkok if they want to enroll into elite or famous universities, regardless of costs involved. How many Bangkok kids want to get a seat in a university in Khon Kaen and Chiang Mai?

If we were to die today, we wouldn’t be shocked with the cold-hearted comment by an entertainment figure, who happens to share an elite family clan. He compares people in provinces in Baboons who should be eliminated and should be deprived of voting rights, just because they voted for stupid politicians he despised. He lamented the western philosophy of equal rights, though he usually dons western suits and neck-ties. Yes, we’re dying, and whatever he says and does could bother us no more.  

If we were to die today, we would not be bothered with the difference of “stupid” and “uneducated’. Leave the stupid who lacks the inspiration to drive themselves, but what we can do to improve the condition of the uneducated? Whatever, we all know that people all over the world have common ancestors, the homosapiens. How different can we are, from the day we were born and the day we will die? 

If we were to die today, we would not have to worry about growing requests that Bangkok be segregated from provinces. Even the most stupid know that in a society, we need to depend on others. Bangkok people work in a service sector and some are lucky to sleep on inheritances, while provincial people grow food. Without them, we will have to import goods and live at the mercy of producers somewhere else. For one thing, this crisis shows that even when you have money, you can’t buy everything. Yes, I mean drinking water.

If we were to die today, would we still host the big cleaning days? I prefer watching trees at home and pondering what I have achieved. Let the doomsday come. 

The problem is the doomsday is still far from us. Without fatal diseases or sudden natural disasters, we are to live, long after this. Thais remain Thais, despite layers of social status. Elites are supposed to help the poor and, as Lord Buddha said, to be happy for anyone who could climb up the ladder with honest approaches. 

The question now is how to proceed, when mercy of many could not eradicate mischievous views of many others? Should we hold our breath and die, or change our attitude for a peaceful co-existence? That is something that people in the country lauding themselves great Buddhist followers to think for themselves.