Editor
I watched a little bit of your YouTube presentation on the drug menace in Meghalaya. Your persistent question on what actually causes addiction was great. But the answers, I thought, were typically modern — too scientific and external, more about brain and body — in short, covering everything but the soul of the addict — especially his loss of inwardness and faith in his powers of self-control. If science alone could explain addiction, then addiction would have been endemic to human nature and visible in all generations. But that is not the case, right? We are not our bodies, and certainly not our brains alone. Consciousness and the soul cannot be explained in terms of the brain alone.
So what makes an individual transition from mere desire, to addiction? I have a different explanation. I think it is the terrible nihilism of our times and its chief consequences — which are, loss of inwardness, lack of meaning in life, loss of faith in our powers of self-control, etc. Succumbing to the appetites, without boundaries imposed by self-control, leads to a devastating loss of self – a self-prone to self-destructiveness.
We all have desires. But we do not become addicts. Many young people have a lot of pain in their hearts. Loss of faith and genuine belief in a higher being, makes them deal with pain through addictive forms of self-destruction. Human nature, unless redeemed by self-control, is self-destructive.
So maybe we need more than just sympathy. Here in Northwest Indiana I see this regime of sympathy (nothing else) as really devastating to the recovery process. Recovering addicts, I am sure, have more faith in therapy than in themselves. This is a tragedy of modernity — unruly passions leading to addiction, whether to substances or to therapy.
As you can see, I feel strongly about this topic. Although untrained in therapy, I wish I were there in person, to speak directly to young addicts. Medication helps, but only to some extent. It cannot tame the passions or bring about dispassion. It cannot give self-control. At best, it controls the physical effects of the devastating mental state of the addict.
Thank you for doing this important work,
Yours etc.,
Deepa Majumdar
Via email
Power woes in Shillong
Editor,
The daily load shedding of two hours by Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) is pushing us to the dark ages. When there is a power failure, mobile internet gets halted. It brings a lot of inconvenience to people, particularly the ones who are working from home for private companies. When there is darkness, one can buy candles or even have a solar light. However, when there is no connectivity, the only solution will be to get an inverter that not all can afford. We hope that the Power Department will empathise with what the citizens are going through and resolve the issue at the earliest.
Yours etc.,
Genia Dohling,
Shillong – 3
NEHU fails its students yet again
Editor,
It is with great distaste and disgust that I am writing this letter, to let the public know of the prevailing covid scare in NEHU, Shillong. We are all aware of the VC testing Covid positive post Yoga Day events after which many students from the same Yoga Day celebrations have developed symptoms and have been asked to get tested. My niece too had been feeling unwell and we, hailing from Silchar, Assam have been at our wits end on how to offer our support given the recent deluge in the Barak Valley. Her parents, my brother, in particular has not even been told of the prevailing situation in NEHU due to his hypertension. What compels me to write this letter is, how can a university in the 21st century and with the reputation of being North East’s highest seat of learning have a leader with utmost disregard for Covid protocols and social distancing? If he was symptomatic and had been feeling unwell, with what state of mind did he attend the Yoga Day observance by putting at risk the lives of hundreds of students and indirectly making their families suffer too during the already tense times of flooding and property losses? It appears that a photo-ops is more important for the VC instead of making sure that his students who have no access to humongous reimbursements and hospital care which Central Government officials are used to, are not exposed to the risk of Covid.
This is a total administrative failure on the part of NEHU to deal with the pandemic which is far from over. When students are asked to return negative RT-PCR results when returning to hostels, why can’t the Vice-Chancellor not be asked for the same given his country-trotting escapades as reported in different media? I think the entire system of Covid handling, especially of NEHU and the State Government needs a relook given this disastrously cataclysmic approach of a “VIP Centric” Covid culture.
Yours etc.,
A Deka
Silchar, Assam.