Are We Civilized Enough?

A fortnight ago, I happened to watch the Ripley's Believe It Or Not show. It was quite entertaining, as usual, exposing the world's most weird happenings, things and people. Suffice it to say, among the stories highlighted during the one hour program, the cover story on a group of native tribe in Brazil had really caught my attention. This tribe (I forgot its name) had a very peculiar culture, which I doubt would be accepted by modern and so-called civilized people nowadays. Honestly, I was so sad knowing and seeing them living in an uncivilized life. The women were still topless, and some are the men still went out for hunting or fishing in naked. They also lived in small bamboo cottages.

To me, this group of people was really 'weird'. The female tribe members applied plats made from clay on their lips and mouth as one of their accessories and as to attract men. These plats will gradually make their lips wider and mouths bigger. The bigger and wider a mouth is the considered the prettier. So, every girls and women forced the lips and mouths to become wider and bigger by putting bigger plats. This act could result to lips-tearing and bleeding. Despite the pain and agony, they willingly keep on cherishing this tradition.

Sounds weird and scary huh? But the most strange and agonizing tradition in this tribe is the "puberty test". I couldn't stop from screaming 'ouch', 'eeiiii', 'biar betul'...etc as I watch young girls and boys going through tests to show their braveness when they reach puberty. According to their tradition, whenever a boy reaches puberty, (this usually in the teen age) they are encouraged to do a ritual which includes bravery test. As to prove their braveness to other tribe members and declare to their elders that they are ready to be an adult and take up the responsibilities of an adult, the boys must put their hands in a jar filled with thousands of ants. These ants are the one that are well-known for their lethal bites. (Ya Allah..just imagine!!) So, as to pass this test, a brave boy shouldn’t pull out his hand from that jar, let alone crying out for help. He must let the ants bite his hand. Having said that, if he passes this test, he would be acknowledged as a true brave man.

So, what about the girls? Well, the girls were also being tested in a different kind of test, yet as agonizing as the boys test. First, the girls should be fasting for a whole day. Then, some elder women of the tribe would pull out their hair...every single hair....until the head became bald!! Just imagine....it was so painful, and absolutely a real kind of torture. And, if the girls could bare the agony, then only they would be acknowledge as an adult.

Masha Allah! As I watched the program, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking of the justification and reason behind both tests. At last, I made my hypothesis. The pain of ant biting resembles the upcoming challenges for the boys as they become adults while the pain of hair-pulling most probably resembles the labour pain...heheheh.

That night, I made a conclusion that I knew was so unfair and unjust. I categorized them as uncivilized people. Yet I’m thankful to Allah for giving a chance to be a civilized person living in a civilized society. Having said that, I started to ponder on my ‘civilized’ community and society. Who am I to judge other people and called them uncivilized? Are we really civilized enough compared to them? And the mind-boggling questions started on.....and on....

As a matter of fact, we are not much different from that so-called uncivilized tribe. It their women are topless, isn’t it the same with us? Just look at ourselves, our communities...we are so proud to say that we can creatively design up to date clothes and we can produce good quality linens and silks, yet, many of us are still barely covering our aurah. If the women of the tribe hurting themselves to make them prettier and to attract men, we, the ‘civilized’ women are surely not much less hurting ourselves to always looked pretty. If they use plats for lips, we use botox, ‘susuk’, and other kinds of hazardous cosmetics for the same purpose. If the boys dare to feel the pain to show their braveness, our youngsters even dare to die to show their skills and braveness to the world, through ‘merempit’, clubbing, taking drugs, etc.

Now only I realise that we are not much different from them. As a matter of fact, the more we claim ourselves as civilized people, the more we return to be uncivilized. The higher skyscrapers we build, the lower is our akhlak and virtues of life. If we still don’t change, the sooner we will be living like the native tribe on the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Show. Do we really want to be like them??