This photograph from The Peoples Voice shows Palestinian children huddling in terror while their house is invaded by the yelling IDF (the Israeli Defence Forces). These children, under brutal occupation, know nothing but constant fear and it shows on their faces.
Of course, this could be a scene anywhere in Iraq as the American Defence Forces carry out continual house-to-house searches. Have you ever looked closely at one of their raids on television, noticed the way the marines are dressed: their helmets, their dark glasses, their hulking bodies, their heavy boots. They are frightening, like monsters out of Star Wars, intentionally so.
Children all over the world experience similar fears: in Africa, in Russia, in Indonesia, in Thailand, etc. It is even beginning to happen now in Britain and Australia and America as right-wing governments adopt more extreme measures (as an activist, I have on more than one occasion fearfully looked out into the darkness and wondered just when I'll hear the sound of running boots on the lawn and my front door being smashed in).
Fear is a terrible thing, especially for children. It causes extreme anxiousness and stress, poor sleep, and it cultivates hatred for those causing the fear, a debilitating hatred that stays forever.
No child should have to live in fear, especially fear generated by the deliberate brutality of those who take from the weak then, wrapping themselves in flags, deceitfully claim to occupy the moral high ground.
It is unconscionable.
Friday, March 09, 2007
FEAR - IT'S HERE, IT'S THERE, IT'S EVERYWHERE!
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12 comments:
i have been a bit fearful about being put on a list or a database somewhere too. i have this feeling that eventually i will be spirited away somewhere never to be heard from again- probably to a holding camp in tex-ass. they have quite a few of those these days.
Betmo, dear friend, I feel for your pain. There are so many decent Americans who deplore what the Bush Admin is doing. And they feel fear too wondering what might happen to them should they speak out.
I feel that Bush could be toppled fairly easily if the people began to rise up. However, what it will take to rouse them is an unknown!
I know what is the solution!
Hillary!
if i had the answer- i wouldn't be blogging. i would be leading. it is a matter of will. the masses are too bewildered or in denial- or worse yet- in agreement. there is a general air of unease and unhappiness here that no one wants to come out and acknowledge. america as a whole knows we have a real problem- we just don't want to think about the solution. we have had 231 years or so of voting instead of fighting- if you don't count the years between 1860 and 1864 :) there is a fear here too because you can't do anything without being surveilled. bloggers, especially, are being watched. there isn't one aspect of our lives that isn't being compiled in a database here. and the camps here are ominous. not just the fema camps- but refurbed former military bases around the country that have been closed. most of us have been at peace for decades and many of us have never fired a weapon. this is not the nation of citizen soldiers that washington had to work with. sigh. all it would take is mass demonstrating- consistently. not just one day so you feel good about doing your part. real protesting. no will daniel. no will.
What have these innocent children done to warrant such a punishment!?!? Why do we inflict pain and suffering on others? Are humans naturally sadistic.
Damian, I'm afraid the answer to your question is yes.
Betmo, I think if Americans can be made to see that the outcome of Bush is going to be, the will will be found. Question is: will the will be discovered too late?
N, what an hillarious thought!
Breaks my heart, Dan. I will always remember the look on my sons face when his father hit me and from first hand experience I'd go one step further and say it's TERROR ,not fear!
Why does there have to be such suffering for innocent children? It makes me cry.
Zoe xxx
Recently The Cutting Edge filmed a documentary on the effects of war impacting on children.
For some, in their short lives they've known nothing but fear and horror....but until the adults are educated and see the pyschological damage being done, what hope have children got. The Muslim children smiled knowing Israeli children had died (their enemy!) and the Israeli children wrote their names on the bombs being used to kill the Lebanese children....
These children will grow up having learned the skills of warfare probably in an atmosphere where peace has been brokered by the adults...but too late for the kids to learn that revenge is not the way to win an argument....
Zoe, dear - didn't you have any rat sak in the cupboard for the vegimite sandwiches? I do hope your son only saw the one incident. No woman should stay with a bully.
Mary Walsh
One little girl was speaking into the camera telling us how the man's head was in one corner of the room and his body in the other....and she didn't want to be like that....there was a certain dull flat look in her eyes that automatically told the viewer that her young eyes had seen horrors we can only imagine.
No children should be exposed to physical abuse and torture scenes, but it seems just so much a part of our daily television viewing that the senses become somewhat detached from the facts of reality.
No child, under any circumstance, should have this in their life at any time, period!
Unfortunately, we are conditioned to accept violence by television, Mary, as well as free-wheeling sex, materialism, acceptance of right-wing politicians, etc. It is a dangerous medium when it's in the hands of capitalists.
Zoe, terror is a much better word. Great suggestion. I'm sorry your kids had to see it!
Every time you show these faces of these children, I realize how personal war is. When I hear about Iran, I think of when my aunt and uncle were in the peace corps in Iran many years ago, and they adopted a baby daughter there...just thinking how she would be feeling now if she lived in Iran, and I picture that look of terror...
Everytime I see these children, no, I feel deep anger for those who are terrorising them.
But my feeling of disgust for those who have let this happen for forty years and still do nothing cannot be expressed in words. Cheers.
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