We all ask questions like, why do people become drug dealers and why isn't the government doing anything to stop them ...but then if you read this book " River of Smoke" by Amitav Ghosh you will see how complicated the situation is and how it seems an impossible task to stop this trade.
First of all, the author is simply brilliant and has done unbelievable level of research regarding Opium tradings in China in the 19th century. He simply transports you into the very streets of ancient and mystical towns of China and makes you walk along with their people to witness it all. As you watch what happens in the alleys and the crowded waterways of 19th century Canton, you will be drawn into the pass and begin to see every transaction that takes place in the opium trade. You will come to know the merchants from Bombay who have become millionaires by smuggling opium into China, you will speak with the native workers, coolies, sailors and servants, you will meet the European merchants. You will know what each and everyone one of them had for breakfast or what type of clothes they wore and what language they spoke. You will know their strength and weaknesses and their family members.
And while you are getting acquainted with them all, suddenly you get a whole picture of whats happening...you see how the British through East India Company smuggled opium into China and how cheaply it was grown in India and then shipped off to be distributed by Indian merchants to the local Chinese population. And how the poorest of people became millionaires. Within decades these merchants became part of the community in Canton...they married the Chinese women and had children who also got involved in the illegal trading of drugs as well. Then, when it was all too late, with more and more people becoming addicted to drugs, the Emperor decides to banish the poisonous trade for good. 1000s of people were arrested and 1000s of pounds of opium were confiscated. All foreign merchants were held under arrest until they surrendered their cargo worth millions of dollars and it was all burnt publicly.
But will the more powerful British government give in to this? No! Of course not. They have been making crazy amount of money from this trade. So, that's how the Opium War happened!
How strange is that? A country going to war, literally to poison their people through an illegal trade. How unfair was that! It has got to be the worst reason for any battle! And its not hard to see that money is the reason. This is of course in a big scale and it all seems unfair but what about the small things which drives people to act in similar ways in their daily lives...ever noticed them?
Sometimes people are willing to sell contaminated food from their stall just so they don't lose their profit for the day. But how do they sleep knowing someone must have fallen ill that day because of their food? Or someone might sell you a product which they know is not genuine. How do they sleep knowing someone who trusted them has lost their money for a cheap product.
I am always baffled how people could be content living with money which they made by cheating others. I would rather be happily starving then to be wealthy feeling guilty all the time!
Desperate? but who is not? if every desperate person chooses to cheat someone...then the world would not have survived this long. The whole system would have collapsed. It is the genuine people who are making the world go round. It is for them the sun has not given up shining. It is for them the sea is still contained up to its shores...otherwise we would be all drowned together!
So, lets stop giving excuses and be more genuine, the world isn't ugly as most people regard it nowadays. I believe the world is getting more and more beautiful. People are getting more and more beautiful. Only problem is people have the technology to share only the fewer ugly side instantly which takes the attention away from all the goodness that's going on around us. Shift your focus for once and look for the good things happening and you will see that you are not able to share it all everyday for there's just so much going on.
We too are drugged....to believe that only the evil is spreading its wings...we fail to see the whole sky above it...all clear and blue! Lets not be drifted by the river of smoke...wake up and look! and you will sure find it! whatever it is that you are looking for....is waiting to be discovered by you!
