Articles from December 2022

We agree that we are all human beings. So why do many groups of people seem to need to target another group as their enemies?

In Iraq, the Yazidi were the chosen victims. In Ethiopia, fellow Ethiopians, the Eritreans, directed their hatred at the rest of the Ethiopians. The Chinese chose their Muslim citizens which included the Uighurs and other Muslims. The Burmese, who we always think of as peaceful people, targeted the Rohingya. Some Pakistanis murdered a group of Hazaras because of the difference in their cultures. And in India the Hindus went after the Christian Indians.

And so it goes. An endless circle of tears and grief.

When I became a teenager I wanted to be free like a bird. My mother also cared about birds, but she was interested in falcons, birds that can be trained to come back to her when she called. Her falcon was me. You can see the conflict here.

This difference caused serious conflicts between her and me. In short, my mother and I did not get along. When I now think about this situation, I see it in a different light.

My mother was the youngest of four children. Her mother, all her siblings, all her nieces and nephews were slaughtered by the Nazis. My mother, accustomed to being surrounded by a loving family, was lonely. She survived only because she, my father and I had moved to France. Besides her husband, I was her closest relative. My desire to be more independent was a threat to one of the two close relationships in her life. Although other parents may view their children’s growth with nostalgia and a little bit of sadness, for my mother my growing independence was a heart rending event.