Feels like not so long ago Spring had only just arrived with all its unpredictability weather wise, but already it is on its way out and the end of the year is just around the corner. The prospect (or is it dread) of Christmas shopping is looming, and the feeling of not wanting to go near the shops festooned with Christmas fare is with me yet again. After last year’s disaster of doing it all in two days as I got the flu, here’s hoping I can be somewhat more organised this year. Completed the first step just in time, did the tax return which rewarded me with the refund within a week, so at least I have something with which to start planning the shopping list.
Fortunately there are other things of more immediate importance marking the fast approaching end of the year, like exams. Not mine thank goodness, done enough of those in my time, but a friend and I have the annual task of supervising Year 11 and 12 student exams for the local school. Amazing how long three hours can feel when you have to sit still and be quiet and not distract the oh so studious ones suffering writer’s cramp in their efforts to extract all that information from their brains and get it down on paper.
We take the opportunity while they’re doing the exam to read the exam paper, and for some subjects I’m eternally grateful I’m not a student any more, but today was Modern World History. Covering all manner of world conflicts and revolutions since the start of the twentieth century, there was an abundance of material to have a field day in the three essays required.
I was fascinated how the majority of my own reading matter has been set amid these conflicts, portraying the human stories within the context of war, oppression and terrorism. The seeming disbelief of the horror one group of people can inflict on another, the mixture of bewilderment and fear, the gravitation of some towards ignoring the suffering of others in order to simply survive while others pull out all stops to care for others amid the chaos around them, the struggles of displaced peoples as they flee their homelands and are transplanted into new countries and new cultures totally foreign to them.
The issues which emanate as they attempt to assimilate while maintaining their own identity and integrity, as well as the issues arising from the responses or reactions of those around them, are all collateral damage of war. Whether refugees have a hope of moving beyond their nightmares and creating a new sense of home depends largely on whether there is a welcoming spirit of acceptance and support, or a sense of reluctance wanting to distance itself from the supposed imposition of a new culture on to their own.
With so many displaced persons dotted all over the planet, the feelings are often those reflected in the book I’ve just finished, Bone China by Roma Tearne, where one by one the children of a Sri Lankan family leave behind the turmoil in their country for what they hope will be a better life in England. Despite having physical safety and new opportunities, what they unfortunately discover over time is that they gradually lose their sense of identity, feeling like they no longer belong to the culture from which they came, or to the one where they are now.
History was what made you what you are. History was what made you feel at ease with yourself. History gave you a solidity, a certainty, in everything you did.
I’d hate to think that if I was a stranger in a strange land, I would have to live out the rest of my days feeling like I belonged nowhere.
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