Be it Gaza or the Ukraine, Sudan or Myanmar, a real-life Halloween is playing out and we are unaware of the enormity of suffering – or, if we are, we bury it under reams of newsprint or easily switched television channels where other distracting news is guaranteed to lessen the enormity of this suffering.
All those rolls of bandages we shall be using for our faux Halloween costumes – while in war zones, let alone real bandage gauze, even baby formula is not allowed past checkpoints. Similarly, children are given toy guns and safe explosive firecrackers to play with for Diwali, to mimic a distant battlefront without the horrific consequences. Its all a process of normalisation of the fall-out of our violence.
And the tentacles of damage reaches out and embraces the next generation in its plasticky ooze. Boys and girls, damaged by conflict, the unfairness of hunger, and snatching away of basic rights, shall be our next leaders going into the mid-21st century and who is to blame them for being jaundiced about progress and how to achieve it.
Celebrations are a natural expression of the joy of living for all of us. Every civilisation designs a different way to mark their triumphs and milestones and we pass it on to the next generation so that history’s trail is unbroken, taking our gaze back to lessons learnt. But in doing so, we must be sensitive to the present. I know we are all squeamish about harnessing good and joyful moments to make a real difference in somebody’s life. When invited to a housewarming or a birthday party, I often think the timing is so right to splurge in the name of the party host(s) on something for a favourite charity. The same ten or fifteen dinars can add up when repeated and genuinely become a game-changer.
I myself have done this only once and the joy of the birthday host, in whose name the receipt came was wonderful – and so much more meaningful than a shopping certificate or whatever else we gift on these occasions.
So - when we send our children trick-or-treating, will we also ask them to request jars of baby food or rolls of medical gauze to be donated to a reliable charity for children like them who are not as lucky? Mind you, it can be the start of a very complex conversation! But one that needs to be begun if we are to see the dawn of change.
meeraresponse@gmail.com
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