The International Day for Tolerance | November 16
International Day of Tolerance logo
Hello Hivers, how is the day going for you all? Hope it’s going as fine as mine is?
Yesterday, I spoke about the ‘I Love to Write Day’ and its importance to us in the Hive blockchain, not just as people but as writers. And today, I come to you with another annual observance called the International Day For Tolerance.
This prolific day is observed on the sixteenth of every November, and its main purpose was to bring to light the dangers of intolerance.
This day of observance was declared by UNESCO in the year 1995 and has been observed religiously ever since. Various festivals and conferences are held on this day to celebrate the occasion. And the most notable of them is the Universal Tolerance Cartoon Festival located in Drammen, Norway responsible for putting together an International Cartoon Festival back in 2013.
Also, in Bangladesh, we have the Peace Summit. It is organized by Preneur Lab and the EMK center. This conference is used as a platform to discuss and share the challenges the country faces as a whole. Challenges like tolerance, fake news, peace, and lots more.
There are lots of examples where countries are following the steps of UNESCO and observing the Tolerance Day, creating more awareness of the fact that we as humans need to be more tolerant of each other.
This fact can never be overemphasized.
If we look at the major problems the world is facing, and I mean the man-made problems; they are usually a result of man’s inability to tolerate his fellow. Countries find it difficult to tolerate their neighbors; races and tribes cannot tolerate the ones that go parallel to their beliefs. That’s why we have tensions across borders, violence in every stratosphere, and whatnot.
Unfortunately, this can also be found in religion. Except in more developed countries, it’s difficult to see people of diverse religions doing things collectively.
This is a cankerworm that has been eating at our unity and sending it crumbling. Because, whether we like it or not, the one recipe for collective success is unity. But how can we attain that height when all we seem to see is the fault of others? Would it be so difficult to simply overlook the fault of others or try to correct them?
Everyone is wired differently. We all have different backgrounds and stories that we would rather not let out to the world. And the sad fact is that we tend to judge the world based on our perspective of life, we forget that every single person has a different background, which makes their view of life different from ours. And so, when they have a different opinion, we see them as odd or even worse.
We need to stop this mentality as a people, and it was because of this that a day such as this was set aside, to remind everyone that with just a little work from everyone, we all can live in peace and harmony.
We all can indeed be our brother’s keeper, irrespective of race, religion, nationality, or financial status. We all can decide to be the ones to do things differently and be a little more tolerant. It might not be easy at first, getting to do something new, but in the long run, it will surely get easier.
And so, I call on you my dear reader, in whatever you do and wherever you find yourself, try working with a little bit of tolerance. It goes a long way in making things easier for everyone.
And in this vein, and the spirit of the celebration, I wish you all a happy ‘International Day for Tolerance!’
Thank you for reading.