racism, ethnic cleansing, genocide i just don't get it.
By mama_bear
@mama_bear (1118)
Canada
October 31, 2009 3:41pm CST
i don't understand why people have to hate so much. i was watching a documentary the other night about the liberation of Belsen. it tore at my heart the attitude of the ss guards and the stat of the camp itself and the dead bodies strewn disrespectfully about. what makes people act in this fashion. how do people get so warped that they treat people like disposable items. i just don't get hating someone because they are another race or religion, torturing and persecuting them, it is not only with the jews. there is also that same sort of thing happening to muslims, i know that it happened in bosnia. the same thing is happening in the sudan in darfoor. the janjaweed are going around trying to recruit people and when that does not work they kill them.
ethnic cleansing, why? after the camps were liberated during the second world war, and the world saw what the germans had done to the jews, they said never again, yet it is happening again in sudan. the same situation is happening in zimbabwe, the minority ndebele are suffering at the hands of the majority ruling party the shonas. there are many dying from starvation and cleansing. when does it all end? where is the line drawn, when does someone say, enough! why is the different so feared? what will it take to end the madness?
3 people like this
9 responses
@maximax8 (31053)
• United Kingdom
9 Nov 09
I think that what happened in World War II was incredibly sad. The ethnic cleansing made no sense whatsoever. Many innocent people were killed by the Nazis. I have visited Anne Franks House in Amsterdam. She wrote a diary about hiding from the Nazis. It was terrible when someone let the Nazis know about them. All of her family went to concentration camps. Only her dad survived and luckily he told her story. I have been to the house of Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch lady that saved many Jewish people. I have been to some of the concentration camps, one in Germany, one in the Czech Republic and two in Poland. I have been to a memorial in Israel. I have visited Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
It is mad that people haven't learned from what happened in the awful World War II. I couldn't believe how foolish and nasty people were with the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. What has been happened in Zimbabwe is really sad. I am against war. I believe in international aid like taking food to the hungry and water to the thirsty. I think history is fascinating and all people should learn not to let such terrible things happen again.
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
9 Nov 09
That saying has a lot of truth in it.."Those who don't learn from History are fated to repeat it"..How is it that a group or a people can dump all their negativity onto another,and cause that to be an excuse to exploit or eliminate them? The Clinical or Criminal group psychology of it is beyond Me..
@mama_bear (1118)
• Canada
12 Nov 09
i actually grew up in zimbabwe, so the situation there really hits me hard. i have family over there too, and till i moved to england i was living in botswana which is a neighbor of zimbabwe, and we had a lot of them border jumping just to come into the country to escape what was happening. i also have memories of growing up in zimbabwe during the first civil war that they had over there during the70s to 80s. it used to be such a beautiful and safe place. i went back a few years ago to see my father to tell him that i was moving overseas, and it was before the situation got as bad as it is now, but it was after those 2 journalist had been imprisoned and after they had sought asylum in the UK. it was such a different place, and i did not feel safe there at all, and now i would not even dream of going back there, it is too scary and crazy out there, i have heard first person accounts of bad things that have happened over there. it breaks my heart daily. and i wonder if some of my friends are even still alive out there, the ones who did not manage to get out.
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
1 Nov 09
Your grievance is indeed too much to bear. But all these will come to pass. The history of salvation had been bloody and morbid, too. The Bible had spelled it all for us. Yet each year, in the modern world, grosser events transpire. What you related tops the stories for our weary hearts...
@mama_bear (1118)
• Canada
2 Nov 09
i want to change the world. i yearn for the era of flower power, i mean there were gross civil rights abuses, but there was also the good the peace love and understanding. i wish for that. i am doing what i can to change the world, doing my part, sometimes it feels like functioning in a vacuum of indifference. but that is okay.
@mama_bear (1118)
• Canada
8 Nov 09
yeah it is all too much sometimes i do not even watch the news anymore, there is never anything really uplifting about the news anymore, and as for those shootings, it is pretty sad the lengths that people will go to. innocent bystanders get hit in the process, i think they call that casualties of war.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27562)
• Philippines
7 Nov 09
Same here. I also long for the good old days when the news we gather were not as mind-boggling and disheartening as we receive them now. See the Fort Wood rampage? That, I think, is not only racial and psychological. It is, as obvious as it gets, a religious war.
@cripfemme (7698)
• United States
1 Nov 09
I don't understand it either. I think the problem is that people feel the need to feel superior to another group of people based on things the other group can't control. If they had more power in their own lives they wouldn't be so obsessed with what other people are doing or not doing wherever they are doing or not doing it.
@mama_bear (1118)
• Canada
2 Nov 09
true, and the underlying thing there as well is fear. it is natural for most people to fear what they do not know, there are very few people out there who want to learn and are open minded. the world needs more of those, and definitely more cultural education.
@syankee525 (6261)
• United States
1 Nov 09
it is very sad how people can still hate others for being different in anyways. to me this world can never have peace because so many hate others for so many dumb reasons
i think they should take those haters and put them in a big feild and let go at each others so the rest of us who wants to get along with everyone else can live in peace.
@mama_bear (1118)
• Canada
2 Nov 09
it is so surprising that people do not seem to learn from previous mistakes. evil will only take root in a place where there is some level of ignorance. i am still trying to understand how hitler got into power and stayed in power for so long, when obviously he was a bit of a head case. why would anyone support someone like that, is there moral compass so out of wack?
@usemyname (640)
• Philippines
1 Nov 09
This is indeed sad. This kind of thing happens every day, amidst the efforts of international world peace organizations. How do we put an end to it? We can start by abolishing discrimination of any kind. Most people think their race, religion, ideas or beliefs are far more superior than others. That's' preposterous! No man is inferior to another. Every individual is special in his own way and that individual is entitled to his opinion.
@mama_bear (1118)
• Canada
2 Nov 09
i cannot relate to that mentality at all, especially seeing how small the world has become with the advent of the internet and ease of travel. i am so interested in other cultures and food and belief systems, i want to learn all about them and visit them all. i mean i am not a religious person, but i do not judge those who do believe and worship some god or another.
@paleorainy (630)
• Italy
1 Nov 09
It's so stupid, and so evil. I don't understand why people even spend energy for hating other people. And what's the difference? For color, or religion, or politic belief, or race? Come on, races don't even exist! We're all people, what's the point in feeling better over someone else? Does it really make us better? Not! But these things never stop happening, even though there's been plenty of horrors inthe past and you could think people understood something or learnt something, it seems as we never learn!
@mama_bear (1118)
• Canada
2 Nov 09
no we do not, i am trying to be better than the previous generation. we are making more of a difference than our parents did. i know that the world is radically different than when my ma was a kid.
@lilaclady (28207)
• Australia
31 Oct 09
Yes it is sad...but this is hatred that is instilled into the children and sadly I put a lot of it down to religion..when will these people learn that we are all here for such a short time and none of us really own anything, we used it for our time we can't take anything with us and we all end up in the same place so why can't we all care about each other, come together and help enrich the lives of all cultures so we can all have the best of lives...when will they learn that all life is precious...
@mama_bear (1118)
• Canada
2 Nov 09
you're right, if you look at all the major wars that have taken place for the last few centuries, religion has been in the center of them, i am not a fan of organized religion at all. and the worst part is, there are people in every religion who find some way to pervert it.
@PeacefulWmn9 (10420)
• United States
12 Nov 09
Hello Mamabear. Like you, I cannot conceive of these things even existing, let alone having the least bit of understanding as to why those who participate in such atrocities do so. How can they??
We are one race, created by God or whatever one calls him, and we are of the HUMAN race. Period.
Hatred is poison.
Karen
@biznesminded (41)
• Philippines
21 Dec 09
Before when i was young, i read from history books, heard from the news about the current events and saw from the true-story movies, about the killings, murders, tortures and other evil deeds. I ask my self why it is happening. At that time i don't understand why it should happen and why people doing it. Since young i believe that everything is negotiable, we can talk and negotiate anything we had arguments with. So i don't get it why it happen.
But then as i grow up, and i think through God's guidance, i understand it, though. Even in bible, lots of killings happen. As we all know, bible is God's words, so why he let it happen? God knows already what will gonna happen before a man do the evil thing, but still God let the man do it.
Now i understand that it should happen to show God's power. that if you just surrender to his will, he won't let you drawn to evil. He will guide you and let you see his goodness. And lastly i understand that if people won't follow his commandments, surely bad things will happen.
