World Freedom Day
Freedom is a fundamental and natural right not only of every human race but even for every kind of creature or life born in this world, due to which nowadays various organizations have also been established and are working for the freedom of animals and birds from the last few years. That is why World Freedom Day is and has become an even more important necessity of human life. There is an old saying among elders that “the secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage” which is very much true, and is unlikely to be proven wrong even in the ages to come or future days that we will be living in this rapidly changing human society.
About World Freedom Day
World Freedom Day is celebrated every year on 9th of November in many countries. Whereas, in different parts of the world freedom is not given so much importance as it must or should have been given, and unfortunately, there are still many places in the world where even the most basic freedoms are also not available to most of the people.
Although the definition of freedom is very broad, general and very simple definition of freedom in general terms in the way that ordinary people can understand it is as follows ”each person has the right to exercise his or her fundamental and natural rights according to his or her own will without interfering another person’s rights in any kind of way.
Freedom is a priority as well as a basic human right. For example, the freedom to choose and follow any religion of one’s choice or not to follow any religion, the freedom to marry the person as per his/her interest, the freedom to move and travel within one’s own country, etc are some basic freedom to name a few. And, these are the basic rights or freedoms.
But, unfortunately, there are still many countries and places in the world where these freedoms are not available to most of the people, where they are forced to endure and live even without the most basic rights and or freedom.
Why World Freedom Day is celebrated?
World Freedom Day is celebrated every year on the 9th day of the month of November, especially in the United States, and nowadays the custom of celebrating it is being adopted in other countries as well.
World Freedom Day was introduced and declared by Former President of the United States George W. Bush (1924-2018) to commemorate the demolition of the East and West Berlin Wall built in 1961 separating east and west Berlin. In addition to that it also commemorates the formal end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe in 2001 therefore World Freedom Day was declared on same day i.e. November 9, 2001.
Analysing the Historical facts, on August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (C.D.R) began constructing a high wall between East and West Berlin using barbed wire and concrete, dubbed the “Antiphysistist Schutzwal” or “Antifascist Boulevard” in German. Which also came to be known as the Berlin Wall later on.
The main and official purpose of the Berlin Wall was to prevent Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and to weaken the socialist state, as well as to prevent the entry of the People’s Liberation Army, mainly from East to West. At the height of the war, Nikita Khruschev (1814-1971) was the person to endorse the Soviet leadership and approved the construction of the Berlin Wall.
The Berlin Wall stood until November 9, 1989, but when the leader of the East German Communist Party announced that GDR citizens could cross the border at any time, that same night shortly after the announcement of the German Communist Party chief, the attention of the German crowd turned towards the Berlin Wall.
Some started entering West Berlin freely while numerous and countless people began to do the same. In the same time, countless people, overjoyed by the announcement, came out of their houses with thousands of different tools such as hammers, picks etc, and began to pierce and tear down the Berlin Wall. The history of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War (1945-1991) is still famous in human history which will never be forgotten.
With the passage of time and the changing political situation in Europe and other different reasons, after the end of World War II in 1945, a pair of Allied Peace Conferences held in Yalta and Potsdam decided the fate of the German territories. They divided the defeated nation into four “allied business zones”, according to which the eastern part of Germany was annexed to the Soviet Union, while the western part was annexed to the United States, Great Britain, which later on was annexed to France after the end of the Cold War.
November 9 was declared World Freedom Day, marking the falling of the East and West Berlin wall existing in Berlin, Germany, along with the formal end of communist rule in mid/central and eastern Europe as well as the official end of the Cold War in Europe.
Former US President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) played a very important key role in ending the Cold War and bringing down the Soviet Union, because of which he is so popular and talked about person on today’s date also, especially in the United States and some other countries. The United States of America is one of the strongest proponents of capitalism in the world, and it celebrates World Freedom Day on this day with young students participation as well as Republican Party youth and various other personalities.
Although the American people emphasize this day as World Freedom Day and celebrate it in grand fashion, other nations around the globe, especially Europeans, seem to be reluctant plus Indifferent to celebrate this day as World Freedom Day. There is no denying that there have been ideological, functional and systemic disputes between capitalist, communist and some socialist countries around the world since the Cold War.
Wherever we are born, in any country of the world, whether we belong to the communist ideology, capitalist ideology or any other political ideology of that country, whatever type of political ideology one might follow, but, the guarantee of freedom and the importance of independent living etc are very important factors for every person living in the human society.
World Freedom Day and Nepal
Nepal, a small and developing country like ours, also there have been different freedom movements. There was a freedom movement against the Rana regime before 2007 B.S for the establishment of Democracy lasted for several years. Likewise, in 2046 B.S whole Nepal united to bring constitutional democracy and to bring freedom and independence. In which the Monarch late king Birendra Bikram Shah, stating that “he does not want blood shed in the birth land of lord buddha gave constitutional democracy to the people of Nepal”. Then the parliamentary system began in Nepal. But, after some years, one of old Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal-COC) joined hands by forming United National People’s Movement starting mass upsurge against monarchical dictatorship, Masal (Masal also retained the RIM (Revolutionary International Movement, (U.S.A) membership for some time), Nepal Communist Party (Ekta Kendra- Mashal and Communist Party of Nepal (marxist, Leninist, Maoist) all joined and these alliance with hands in hands formed “United National Communist Party of Nepal which later was dubbed as Nepal Maoist Party, which waged a 10-year people’s war against the state with the objective of changing the country to Republic as well as with various other objectives as providing basic and natural rights to all, with the objective of making the lives of common, poor and marginalized people comfortable, and transforming their lives economically and socially etc.
Thus, even in a small country like ours, from time to time, political groups with different ideologies have fought a lot for the rights and freedoms of the people. There is no denying that after 2063 BS, new dimensions of freedom are being added to the lives of the people and new dimensions are being added every day. Within freedom, every person should have the right to be able to live a comfortable life within its perimeter, rules, laws, etc.
The general right of every citizen also has the right to be free from the excessive arbitrary traffic jams and disturbing unnecessary traffic jams on the road. Other basic right, among so many as an example, the need to wait in line for hours or even days to buy all the essential goods like cooking gas, oil, rice, salt and the frequent increase of their price on basic food supplies, corruption and the absence of the rule of law are the main problems, The freedom of Nepali society and the people of the country that are human freedom but all are experiencing the lack of its implementation each and every day in one or another form. And despite winning so many freedom rights movements and manifestations, we still are deprived of fundamental and natural rights or freedom. But in any case, as the “Nepali people are not afraid of misery nor become too excited during happiness”, we hope and believe that all of us Nepalis will soon have all kinds of rights, freedom and life will be happy. And soon every Nepali living in the country from the mountains to the Terai (Madhesh) will live a happy and comfortable life understanding better the definition of freedom, transparency in the law will soon be living a much better life for sure.
In the end
We would like to express our firm belief and the best wishes to all Nepalis living in Nepal and living abroad with strong belief that all of us will soon have fundamental, natural and other rights as well as freedom in life which as mentioned above are needed to make human life successful.
Freedom is a priority as well as a basic human right, therefore, like during celebration of all festive holidays, World Freedom Day should be celebrated with lots of joy and enjoyment. In this way the people in general will also slowly start to know the importance of freedom, and the consciousness of the people will also develop in knowing and understanding what freedom really is.
In the end, our entire team of Nepali Patro, Hamro Samaya Hamro Gaurav, wish to convey “The Best wishes to all the users, readers and well-wishers of the Nepali calendar on this beautiful and important occasion of World Freedom Day.
Many Many warm Wishes to all of World Freedom Day.