Be Humankind

As I sit here at my comfortable desk, checking emails, sending messages, and browsing the news, I feel slightly ashamed. Less than 200 km away from me a major humanitarian crisis is underway. If I was at home, close to such catastrophe, the workplace would be a mess. News updates would be blaring, aid convoys would be organized, and suffering would not go un-noticed. Here, I sit. No one is even talking about it.

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. About how conflict like that can start, and how it possibly ever ends. The DRC has been in turmoil forever, and I think it’s fair to say that most of it can be traced back to colonialism, followed by a lack of leadership. I won’t go into details about my political opinions here, as really, they’re irrelevant anyways. The fact of the matter is that people think that happiness can only come if “enemies” are erased from their land and their lives; a dangerous, threatening, terrible thing to believe. It is a belief that has lead to hatred, fuelling destruction and turmoil, murders and rape, and the uprooting of 250 000 people, now refugees in the eastern part of the DRC, along the boarder of Rwanda.

All day, I have been trying to understand what it could possibly be like, to live as a refugee. Gathering what you can carry, multiple children in tow, running away from your home, family, and life. Many of the refugees are living in the jungle, too afraid to seek assistance. If I had been born there, I could be the mother of four, terrified, hungry, with nothing to give my children, at the mercy of aid agencies who are slow to respond, caught up in their own beauraucracy and political undertones. I don’t think I can even properly imagine that. Nor can I properly imagine the stem of such upheaval. My friend, E, who was a soldier before his 15 birthday, told me that he is proud of me for at least asking the questions. Apparently, no one really has the answers.

I think part of the reason is fear. Part of it is survival. Some of it is ingrained, indoctrinated, a tradition of hatred passed through the generations. Greed plays a role; with so little resources, there is not enough to go around. Who will receive them – you, or them? It is difficult to think about. It makes me sad.

Worst still is that I cannot picture the violence, specifically in the DRC, ever properly settling down. How can it end? How will it end? Everyone is not going to miraculously get along. How much will outside influence help, or will it just mess everything up? Attention must be paid. "Never again" must be upheld. I cannot sit back and watch this world fall apart.

We need to start with understanding. All over the world, piece by piece, slow by slow. It starts with me, and it starts with you. Each and every one of us is priceless; our rational, human lives hold too much value to be given a number. We are all someone’s child, a sibling, a parent, a friend, a person. Kindness, I believe, is the answer. Every day kindness, that is. It is not easy, but it is easier if we start to see one another for who we are: the same. If the world really is going to change, that is the fundamental starting block: to be humankind. I have the audacity to hope for that, at least.


*** The situation in the DRC has not spilled over into Rwanda. My supervisor from Canada is coming to visit (in a pre-planned trip) on Friday and will check out the situation. Currently I feel very safe and there is no need to worry.***