The Spontaneity of Goodwill
What could be more natural than an adult noticing a child languishing in neglect and offering a helping hand? Or, translated to a theatre of war, offering a child something to brighten that child's day. To create a momentary atmosphere of hope and good feeling. To banish that child's fearful thoughts of a uniformed foreigner offering threat.To demonstrate in the most elemental of human interactions, that there should be no chasm of indifference between people.
How often have we read of wartime incidents when fighting forces passed through a town, liberating it, and offering sweet treats to the children there, alleviating momentarily the gloom of their suffering.
And where is there a more needy atmosphere for humanity to shine forth than in an impoverished country made more miserable by the occasion of one conflict after another destroying any likelihood of normalcy for the residents; above all the children?
One might say it's a time-honoured custom for occupying forces or liberating armies to demonstrate at the level of adults surveying the world of youthful diminished opportunities, compassion for the children they encounter. Handing out chocolate, candies, special treats the children would have no other way of obtaining than by the passing kindness of a stranger.
It's all too true that far too often children are abused by those passing strangers in other theatres of war. Subjecting children to the vagaries of a war-time atmosphere where life is fleeting is bad enough, weighting their minds with the trauma of incandescent fear and the trauma of losing parents is a nightmare.
But now, battling a resurgent Taliban advance, Canadian soldiers in the Panjwaii district of Afghanistan have had to suspend this practise. For the kindness offered to children in making school supplies, candies and toys available to them, has been recognized for its potential of danger. Taking a lesson from a 2006 incident where a Taliban suicide bomber took the opportunity to kill four Canadian soldiers.
The possibility, a very real one, that the excitement engendered in a village by children assembling for a brief ceremony of gifting, followed by their parents, attracting the attention of embedded insurgents is not a remote one. Gatherings present an opportunity to kill large numbers of people, both civilian and foreign forces, through an insurgent assault.
As an alternative, goodwill missions "where the area in question is well planned out, security is well in place, and there's a controlled entrance point", will enable Canadian troops to present villagers with gifts. This presents some emotional difficulties for soldiers confronted with the reality of poverty and being unable to respond immediately with practical assistance.
And yet another way was found to be more practical, whereby the transfer of much needed materials from the Canadian contingent to the village children could be accomplished. Indirectly, by tasking the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police with handing out those school bags, pens and pencils to the children who will benefit from them.
"It breaks your heart, almost, because you want to" in the words of an Ontario Provincial Police officer serving with the Canadian Panjwaii unit. It must break their hearts for other reasons as well, given that the region was originally taken by a Canadian-led operation from the Taliban two years earlier, only to be overrun by the Taliban again a year later, upon Canadian troop withdrawal.
The Taliban, it should be remembered - lest any require recollection, take it upon themselves to destroy schools, to murder teachers who dare teach Afghan girls. And the students too are never immune from violence. There can be no spontaneity in the desperate mayhem of a murder-voracious conflict, where the aggressors seem incapable of recognizing the sanctity of life.
Particularly that of children whose childhoods are taken from them.
Labels: Realities, Terrorism, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, November 15, 2008
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