"He remembered the Latin words he had once seen on a sixteenth- century map to mark the limit of Western exploration of Africa, Scientia hic finit.
Knowledge stops here. How arrogant we were, he thought. How arrogant we remain." Donna Leon
Please continue following my blog, as I head to South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana in January. I am not going to find myself. I am not going to save Africa. And, I will never buy a safari vest. I am looking for the t/Truth.
"One wonders what would happen if good-hearted Americans realized that a mere 10% of the US military budget, if reinvested in foreign aid and development, could care for the basic needs of the entire world's poor. Or if they realized that one-half of 1% of the US military budget would cut hunger in Africa in half by 2015. Would there be marches in the streets calling for budgetary reform?" Everything Must Change, Brian D. McLaren
We now have the ability to kill without ever being in the country. Why go to Afghanistan if you can kill combatants and still make it home for dinner?
I sat watching the CNN report of the first kill by the US Army's drone from Mostar, the most heavily bombed city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I was stunned, just as I was beginning to grasp the full implications of war, I was introduced to a new version. Luckily, I was refreshed after spending the evening with Youth Bridge Global, an NGO using applied drama as a tool of peace and reconciliation. Their first year they barely performed Romeo and Juliet in a city now fragmented by the war, leaving Bosniaks and Croatians divided. Averil, Alex, and I walked to see their stage, a courtyard of the bombed out library. We found a concert instead, a witness to Bosnians claiming their space and using their voices in a world that can now kill with a video game.
It is critical that I am touching the remains of war the first time in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It has become casual, normal even, to walk by phosphorous bombed buildings, shell markings, to meet concentration camp survivors, watch (free) war criminals and mass grave findings on the nightly news or talk on a cell phone next to a graveyard. But, it is also here, that the passion of the people washes over me, cleansing me of this violence.
The spirit of resistance has manifested itself in the form of passionate nonviolence, the arts. The Sarajevo film festival started during the war to salvage civil society, and has now grown to become one of the largest in Europe. The Miss Sarajevo beauty contest was held during the peak of fighting; U2 would later sing about this beautiful act of courage. The war Theater in Sarajevo continued to perform, famously debuting Hair in the city under siege. Education never collapsed because they were sustained by the brave teachers that would walk among snipers and shells to hold class in basements. The newspaper Oslobeđenje (Freedom) never missed a single day of print. A 700-yard tunnel was hand dug right under the UN controlled airport, past their inability to do anything but hand out old food, and into the"valley prison" (Clancy). A lifeline was then established to transport food, ammunition and supplies. Finally, Vedran Smailović , caught the worlds attention as the Cellist of Sarajevo, playing Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor for 22 days; dressed in his tuxedo, he played each day to honor the 22 victims killed while in line for bread. "He played for human dignity that is the first causality in war. Ultimately, he played for life, for peace, and for the possibility that exists even in the darkest hour. Asked by a journalist whether he was not crazy doing what he was doing, Smailović replied: 'You ask me am I crazy for playing the cello, why do you not ask if they are not crazy for shelling Sarajevo?'" (Swati Chopra)
CNN reports that war has been revolutionized, that warfare will never be the same. Indeed, I fear what we are capable of now. Never to set foot on the ground of the people we destroy anonymously. We now live in a world that can mobilize 1 billion dollars a week for war, but fails to find 5 billion for children's health care. In this context, we rely on unmanned aerial vehicles, no longer dependent on killing with our hands. We will not feel a pulse stop or the weight of life leave the body. We will no longer see the people left behind, the ones "born into blood and fire" (Galeano) picking up their lives and choosing to fight with words, not weapons.
