How’s the beam in your eye going?
“To see the mote in somebody’s eye and not the beam in one’s own”.
It’s been hard to admit, but we know that we are not perfect. However, when it comes to recognising our mistakes, we still have some work to do.
The era of Western European colonialism is a very dark episode in our history. The majority of people would agree with this statement, but few will feel comfortable with the following one: Western European colonialism was a genocide against indigenous groups. Why is it so difficult to admit it?
True it happened a long time ago, times were different and the value given to life also, but none of this justifies our lack of humanity when denying the suffering inflicted on millions of people. Maybe it was not “pure genocide” in the sense that we didn’t want to wipe the indigenous off the map but to use them as slaves and exploit them and their country's resources. But it’s undeniable that acts of genocidal violence were committed against them. These are facts that can be proven by the number of slaves that were kept to work for colonists or were brought to Europe to work, by the vast amount of artefacts plundered that we can see in our museums, or by the continued exploitation of their countries’ resources that we still do nowadays.
A genocide is first of all an atrocious human pain for those suffering it, and an inconceivable cruelty by those inflicting it. A senseless extermination of lives that reached an estimated number of 6 million in the case of the Jewish Holocaust from 1933 to 1945. But it is also the decline and end of a culture. Values, ways of understanding life, artistic manifestations and knowledge. All disappears, diminishing humanity's heritage. Moreover, the suffering doesn’t stop there. Nowadays, people from old colonies who come to Europe are in many cases considered second-class citizens. And that’s if they are lucky! Others are just illegal immigrants trapped in new forms of slavery.
What should we do? A friend told me that asking for forgiveness is too Christian for his liking. I couldn’t agree more. Too many horrors have been committed in the name of religion. But one thing is to ask for forgiveness and another one is to acknowledge the suffering and do something to stop it or help the survivors to overcome the trauma. Don’t laugh or repost racist memes, our youngsters are being trained like this to scorn others. Be critical and vigilant with our politicians, they must feel our pressure. Unapologetically defend human rights for everyone.
But the real question here is: why is it happening again? The world is experiencing extremely violent times these days genocides and war crimes are broadcast live. Now it’s the Palestinians, while war and conflicts continue in Ukraine, Myanmar and Xinjiang, among other places. Why don’t we learn our lesson?
Denying the existence of genocide, minimising the facts, not recognising historical genocide’s victims and seeing it as something from the past gives a sense of impunity to those leading barbaric acts nowadays. In addition to that, our “democratic” leaders have to be brave and not sell out to economic or geopolitical interests when armed conflicts, wars and genocides strike any of our planet Earth compatriots. We are all part of the human race and the genocide of any nation is equally dreadful. I know, expecting such candour from our leaders might seem far-fetched. We may start thinking about what kind of people are governing us that allow atrocities like the one in Gaza to continue.
Want more? You can read “Huaco Retrato” by Gabriela Wiener, translated into English “Undiscovered” by Julia Sanches.
