I’ve been reading the news these days with a sense of increasing alarm. Everywhere you look, all you see is hatred and anger and vitriol. The spread of fake news and fake paranoia has gripped not only India, but the rest of the world too.
This series of tweets this morning have forced me to speak my mind. Please, tell me that I am not the only one who feels my heart shatter into a million pieces each time we demonise a group of people as “the other”.
“Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents to at least three “tender age” shelters in South Texas…
2/6
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
“Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the “tender age” shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis…
3/6
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
“Decades after the nation’s child welfare system ended the use of orphanages over concerns about the lasting trauma to children, the administration is standing up new institutions to hold Central American toddlers that the government separated from their parents…
4/6
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018
What is currently happening in the US, with children, even toddlers, of immigrants being forcibly separated from their parents and sent to “tender care homes” is heart rending. History will look back at this period as a black time, not just in the US, but globally.
This seems like humanity’s darkest hour – everywhere you look there is violence and hatred; us against them; the bogeyman of “the other”.
We’ve made lynching a national pastime in India; in Italy, they’re looking to deport the Roma – except those who “unfortunately” have Italian citizenship. The Rohingya crisis in Myanmar. The Syrian war. The conflict and chilling human rights violations on the Gaza Strip. And the list of atrocities only grows.
When will we treat each other as fellow human beings? Live up to the ideals taught in every religion and culture on brotherhood; on treating your neighbour as God?
Atithi devo bhava (the guest is like God) and Vasudeva Kutumbakam (The whole world is my family) are also ancient Indian – Hindu – tenets that we have forgotten in our blind hatred at things that happened in ancient history and in the past.
Instead of rising up from those times, we are descending further into the abyss of hate and vitriol from which there is no return – and the cost of the descent is too high.
We’ve seen it in the world wars, in Nazi Germany, with Pol Pot and Mao.
And if a section of people misguidedly claim that they’re doing this for their religion or their God, then please: stop. No God condones killing; period.
It’s time for humanity as a whole to take a long, deep look at where we are heading. There is still time to turn the tide around. To advocate for love & fairness & justice for ALL people, regardless of race, culture, religion, caste, skin color, gender, sexual orientation.
What will we do from here? Will we allow hatred to consume us, or will we open our eyes and realise the horror we are inflicting on one another in the name of “protectionism” “religion” or any other label we choose to hide behind?
It’s time for humanity as a whole to take a long, deep look at where we are heading...to advocate for love & fairness & justice for ALL people, regardless of race, culture, religion, caste, skin color, gender, sexual orientation. Click To Tweet
Couldn’t agree more but then this is the Kaliyug isn’t it? Even if one doesn’t believe in this doomsday philosophy it would seem that the end of civilised society is at hand.
It would, but we can all raise our voices in some way. We don’t have to be social media warriors, but we can start by talking to our families and communities. It is hard, though, and sometimes it does feel like end times. But I also see a lot of people standing up against hatred, and so I hold on to a bit of hope.
Hope is what keeps us going . I salute you for trying to at least make some noise and speaking up when it is all too convenient to stand by and watch
I veer between speaking up constantly and going quieter in between, but I don’t think I can close my eyes to what is happening, even though it hurts so much to see all of this divisiveness.
I don’t know what’s happening in India, but here in North America, it is total chaos as long as Donald Trump remains President of the United States. His actions of ripping young children away from their parents is just the latest in a series of deplorable incidents. He has initiated a trade war with us (Canada) and the rest of the world, which can only result in depressed economies, everywhere. I fear for the future! Here’s hoping people will continue to fight against this and that Americans will throw him out of office. What startles me is the support he continues to receive! Are these people deaf and blind? 😮
Oh yes, I’ve been watching the news and I’ve seen a lot of his deplorable policies right from the start of his presidency. It’s beyond belief that people can still support him and believe that anything he’s doing is going to lead to any kind of good. Walking out of the UN is his most recent act of lunacy I think.
I just typed a comment, but it disappeared. Hope it didn’t end up in your spam folder!
It didn’t – it got held up for approval. 🙂
I totally agree. I saw Maddow’s moment on tv and it struck me that this was the kind of journalist that we need all over… people who can showcase the pain genuinely instead of fanning hatred. We need to fight the rise of fascism … this – kidnapping children and putting them in steel cages – cannot be normalized. It has to end here.
Yes. A journalist who cries on TV isn’t one who is peddling a fake or political narrative. What’s alarming is the people who choose to believe that this is not true. That their hatred trumps their humanity.
It has to end. The world is going through so much and I could not agree more with your thoughts. On the DACA and US issue, I heard a very different view that the news is politically instigated. I was suggested that the law says that children have to be with parents even if they have a OCI and can enter back in US when they attain the age of 21. What I am saying is yes – things are bad but the truth is also not passed on to this in all transparency.
I respectfully disagree. Trump himself has admitted to separating children from immigrant parents. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-us-canada-44538110) For the duration of prosecution the children will be held in state institutions, separated from their parents with no visitation rights.
The policy is unique to the Trump administration. Previous administrations did not, as a general principle, separate all families crossing the US border illegally.
Furthermore, given how chaotic child care and transferring so many children is, there is currently no formal process or clear protocol for tracking parents and children within the system. What this means is that there is a real possibility that some of these children may never be reunited with their parents. (https://www.npr.org/2018/06/19/621065383/what-we-know-family-separation-and-zero-tolerance-at-the-border)
There’s a lot to be said about checking our news sources, and a lot of channels/media do have a particular bias. But when issues such as this, such as the lynchings and rapes in India, such as human rights violations around the world arise, it’s dangerous to discount them as not being transparent or having an agenda. That’s my 2 cents.
I’m with you there. These issues are not issues. These are human rights violations and these children need to be with their parents. I’ll check out the sources. My intent was to call out that there is lobbying in US too. India lynchings, it’s horrible. People are chased and killed cos there is possibility that they could have had beef? This is a shame.
It’s sad to see such a plight. I wish that people would stop crossing the border with their children at least until everything mellows down. What we see on news and read online is just half of it. A lot more heartbreaking sufferings must be happening which we are not aware of yet. Those little kids and the parents, I can’t even begin to imagine what they must be going through.
Absolutely appalling separating children from their parents. There seems to be one rule for the US and one for the rest of the world. USA should be held accountable for the destruction they’ve caused across the world.
Oh it just makes you feel sick. These are children at the end of the day. We need more humanity and compassion ❤️
I am right there with you on all of this! I hate what is happening in my own country with a President who is basically trying to be a dictator King rather than a diplomatic and fair Leader of the Free World. It’s heartbreaking and to know these things are happening all over the world is just depressing. Too many people are still living in the past. They refuse to open their eyes and they let their own ignorance lead them. It’s every time Humanity takes two steps forwards, we have ignorance takes three steps back. It makes me sick. All of it! #ABloggingGoodTime