Refugee
Situation in Europe and the chance to cleanse our minds about FEAR of the OTHER
Unprecedented
numbers of people seeking refuge from war torn nations such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan,
along with those fleeing poverty and lawlessness in Somalia, Eritrea, Mali,
Pakistan and Bangladesh, along with Serbians and Kosovans are flooding through the
reluctantly open European Gates at Hungarian Border.
Angela
Merkel made an unprecedented humanitarian gesture, because it was the right
thing to do, to admit as many as 800 000 refugees to Germany. Thus she became
one of the shining stars of the European world and gave the world the first
German leader who could be respected.
Unfortunately, the last German leader to be odiously remembered was Hitler
and his predecessors were not that glorious.
(Germans showing their sentiments during a sports event)
Angela
Merkel, grew up under communism, more like Stalinism of the Hoenecker era and has been an exemplary leader among the
wimpy European leaders, such as Hollande, Sarkozy in France or out of touch and
nationalistic like Cameron in the UK. Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, as
always stands out as a beacon.
( NEW AUSTRALIAN, THE TERM NOW HAS A NEW MEANING.. ABOVE FROM AUSTRALIA)
The
OTHER is here at our doors. Australia is taking more than its share. The number
to be admitted by France, UK and USA or Canada seems very meager. Because in
all these countries there is a pervasive fear of the OTHER...
Now
here is a chance to get rid of the fear of the OTHER, the need for OTHER to be
present to be hated, by embracing these desperate people and giving them a
chance.
As
Pope Francisco admonished: Each Catholic family should give refugee to one
family or one refugee!
Participant
Observation, like we Anthropologists do, by living with the people we want to understand,
is a good way to get rid of this fear. Sending money, like Qatar or UAE is
doing without giving residence to a Single Syrian Refugee, is no longer
sufficient. Poorer countries like Lebanon and Jordan and to a great extent
Turkey are bearing the brunt of the crisis of huge population movements from
Syria and Iraq.
Being
a Jew, I know what it is to be the OTHER, historically it has been our fate and
our burden and lately even in an ordinary Metro ride through Paris, and the
Otherness of Jews is emphasized.
(think of them as the NEW EUROPEANS)
Tonight
begins Rosh Hashanah, our New Year 5776 and I welcome the new year with a great
applause for the Europeans who are welcoming the refugees and migrants and
especially to the little girl from Communist East Germany who
has grown up to be the shining example
of leadership in the Western World.
This
fear of the other now coined with TERROR, because of the national origin of the
refugees, has to be understood. A book
about TERROR of another sort in Argentina, during its bloody days, that made an
impression upon me was Jacobo Timmerman’s Prisoner without Name, Cell without
Number.
As
a young boy, Jacobo Timmerman asks his Jewish mother, “Why do they hate us?”
and she replied: “because they do not understand.”
Studying
the history of antisemitism, and the current abhorrent pronouncements of their
leaders and preachers, one can understand what Michael Taussig wrote in his book:
Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man: A study in Terror and Healing
He
says,
Hated
and feared, objects to be despised yet also of awe with evil understood as the
physical essence of their bodies, they are just as clearly objects of cultural
creation, the leaden keel of evil and mystery stabilizing the ship and the
course that is Western History.
After
Jews, they added the fear of the Communist and now it is Moslems.
All
of them were imputed with savagery, wildness and evil and the powers to be,
like the Nazis in Germany, mimicked the savagery they had attributed to the
OTHER.
Let
us learn from these lessons of Nazi Brutality, a brutality without a parallel
in the history of the world; what happened in Argentina, what is now happening
in Syria , and look at ourselves and try and understand the OTHER. We have a
chance and I was so proud to see so many Europeans marching with placards, You
are Welcome. These white, blond blue eyed people welcoming thin hungry
desperate men with a different religion and belief, women clad head to toe,
while their children hugged the toys that had been donated.
Let
us not project our fear and our hatred on to them, but try and understand their
plight.
If
you live in a Communist Country like Cuba, you would understand the Hatred that
has been showered upon it, while nothing is mentioned of the Great Humanitarian
Aid that Cuba gives in the field of Health to the developing world.
If
you work with oppressed group of people, like the Native Americans in North
America, you would understand the fear rising out of guilt of the population,
hatred because of the Indians understanding of the world we live in, and his
closeness to the Great Spirit.
It
is time to shed that FEAR and HATRED.
There
is a line in a novel by Marcel Ayme from France
I,
said the man, am a JEW
THAT
LINE HAS A LOT OF MEANING FOR ME.
 |
| this arrived from my good friend Biju , Historian of Fort Cochin |
Marcel
Aymé
(1902-67) was one of the great French writers of the twentieth century. Born in
the Franche-Comté
of Eastern France, he never lost touch with his rural origins, which influenced
much of his work. Initially perceived as a man of the left, throughout his life
Aymé
espoused causes from across the political spectrum, for example apparently supporting
Mussolini's colonialism in Africa whilst also campaigning for the abolition of
the death penalty. He attracted much controversy for his writings for
collaborationist magazines during the Second World War, and his defence of
Nazi-sympathising friends including Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Robert
Brasillach in the post-war years. Nevertheless Aymé has remained hugely
popular in France - this collection is particularly famous, and a dozen of his
novels have been turned into films, among them the classics of French cinema La
Traversée
de Paris, La Vouivre and Uranus.
