Remembrance

I am currently reading an article regarding the emergence of Right wing politics in Eastern Europe, clipped from the Guardian just a few weeks ago. Yes of course some of comments worry me, and make think voting Conservative is a bad idea (but when honestly did I ever think it was a good idea? I mean Boris Johnson really?!) But what got me is not the absurdity of politics, that’s pretty much a given (do you really want a list? Blair for president???? Silvio Berlusconi? Bush… I could continue, sadly…) but my actual point is this….

Why is there a competition to have more people, that is ‘your people’ killed or dead? As if to say, “well in that genocide in ’73 I lost 5,000 of my racial/class/gender grouping.” And the reply is this “ah but I lost in ’65 - 8,000 of whichever opposing group you happen not to like… so there. I’m worse off.” The logic seems to state that by having more corpses you’ll somehow win the argument.

This isn’t a competition, and nor should it be. Death is death, and when it happens it’s a tragedy. When it happens because of murder it’s a crime, and when that is scaled up to genocide whither it be in Rwanda, Poland, Russia or Kosovo – its wrong. I’m not for a moment saying that the number of people who died should be forgotten, but by doing a comparative study or a rate scale does not make one unlucky slaughtered group any better or worse than another group who was exterminated.

The precise facts, actually shouldn’t matter because the fact that we continue to kill, rape, rob and disfigured is what is important now – we shouldn’t forgot those who are dead, not for a moment should we allow them to go quietly into the dark – their deaths, the deaths of everyone who has died because of their race, or religion, disability or gender have suffered at the hands of discrimination. To separate and say that one certain group is less fortunate or worse off or deserve more is just another form or different way of dividing and prioritising those gone.

Surely the ‘lesson’ from the Holocaust is going to have to revise its statement of “never again” we – the world – has watched and drawn graphs and said ‘ah but its less than in 1945’, when we should see that maybe the methods were less disgustingly efficient, but the end result is the same – a lot of dead bodies. And all the tit for tat and, all the ‘I’m worse off because more of mine are dead’; won’t bring the people back to life or punish those responsible.

The murder, the genocide and the finger pointing has to stop, the tragedy is this – people the world over are dying and being killed for stupid reasons, and we as humans do nothing to protect those who are flesh of our flesh, our own species for heaven’s sake, in fact we are pulling the trigger and watching them die, and then counting up the scales.