We are not powerless

Renaud Philippe

Catherine Dorion

Friday, 2 march 2018 15:38

UPDATE
Friday, 2 march 2018, 18:01

Look at this article

“I am more disturbed. The human adapts to everything, ” says Renaud between two puffs of a cigarette. In the screen of the Messenger conversation, I make out a smile, teeth and beard-blonde. The rest is lost in the darkness.

Renaud spends his days in a refugee camp, Rohingya who have fled the genocide in neighbouring Myanmar. Refugees who arrive with nothing other than the skin and the bones, as in the photos of the nazi camps. Images of buddhist monks burning alive of muslim Rohingyas. Yet another horror story at the other end of the planet. Why are they interested in it, this one? That said, therefore, that a death at the corner of the street meant more than a million dead on the other end of the world?

For you to make a long story short, the Rohingya are a muslim minority group that lives in Myanmar (mostly buddhist). They are going to starve to death. The State promulgates laws that are discriminatory : not the right to cultivate your field, to have the livestock, to go and look for food in the woods, not the right to fish, travel, go to school, to wear the beard, not the right to anything.

Those who violate are zigouiller, those who flee are swelling the ranks of refugees stuck in camps in Bangladesh, where the photographer of Québec Renaud Philippe went to collect their testimonies.

700 000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar last summer. The army had to enter their villages and kill lots of people, having fun in passage to throw acid on the faces, to rape, to loot, to let go to a large party of blood and cruelty. The testimonies intersect all and they are all horrible. The UN concluded that it was a genocide.

However, it is not a hotbed impulsive. The genocide has been desired, desired and orchestrated by the government of Myanmar. Sow the terror and chase away completely the population of the country, it is their political objective. “Objective not worse reached, we will give them that “, says Renaud in laughter dark.

The first interviews were much stirred. He was not ready to hear all the horrors. Lock 40 girls in a school and then kill by breaking under the eyes of their parents, and I’m saving the details. “

“You must feel so helpless,” I tell him.

ll me again. “No. I can’t afford to let me go to a feeling of powerlessness. They were engaged, telling me while weeping in their small houses of canvas and bamboo, they agree to dive back in horror, ” my son has been burned alive in front of me, the emotions come out, mine also, and between us something was born, a direct link, such as a species of understanding.

My very presence is to them a promise. They give me a big proof of trust, and the only human response possible to this trust, for me, it is a commitment. “

That is, the commitment, at the bottom. It is feel connected.

“Sometimes their confidence is wrong, because I know the impact that my photos don’t change much for them. Once, I got to give a letter to Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. It said, basically, Thanks for being there, you’re going to bring your photos to Canada, and when Canada is going to see it, everything will change, we will be saved.

Ouch. Not really, no.

“But no matter, all door, chains Renaud. The people, little by little, people will think otherwise. I believe in all the contributions. It is necessary that I put a crazy energy for there to be small changes, but I believe in it. People would talk, and feel connected to their tower. They will give to an NGO, may be, or consume it in another way, or will be interested, simply. Just to be interested. Already, it binds.

“There are refugees that come to us, and there are people who see them as invaders. They have no idea of the background of these people. Come see in the camp. You will be welcome with smiles. Your heart will open. It will do you well. Hate is destructive, I would not like it in the world of home. I don’t want that for my fellow citizens. This is why I bring my photos in to us, and what I bring in my photos despite the horror, it is still beautiful. The resilience, the smiles, the hospitality, it invites me to eat, to sit, there is a willingness to share and accommodate the other. “

Here, we are the future short. We want to take action and see changes immediately. Otherwise, we’re not interested in. It would surely make the well begin to believe, as Renaud, that each crumb that it sends in one direction has its impact.

I remember a buddhist monk who had said in conference : “When you suffer for something, think of all the other humans on the planet are suffering at this time for the same reason as you. “I tried it, it relieves really. Well perhaps it is the same with the hope. When you do a little something for justice, tell you no, it’s nothing, I’m so small. Think of all the others, on the planet, are doing the same thing as you, because they believe in it like you. It, it is huge.

And we need the vastness.

While some of the violent, kill and massacre, others, billions of others are in the process of creating links, of open hearts.

We are not alone. We are not powerless.

*****

This is my only ticket of the winter in the Log, and probably also in the spring and summer. It is because I am very involved in politics, these days, with Québec solidaire. In the meantime, we have found on other channels, stayed tuned!