I was born right in the middle of World War II. Both of my parents were survivors of an earlier genocide.
Just as the civil war heating up, I left Lebanon for the US. I arrived in the Columbus, Ohio, just as the university protests were getting underway. A few years later I moved to Brazil to collect the data for my Ph.D. dissertation.
Brazilians told me many times that they are peaceful people. I think they really thought (or wished) that Brazil would be a peaceful place. I do too. Let me tell you - it ain’t.
A very large number of poor and adolescents were being killed then. Today they still are being killed.
A very large number of poor women were being killed there each year. They still are being killed there each year.
The same goes for other violence against young the poor - and especially violence against poor women.
I learned quickly that the country I called my second home was in fact an undeclared war zone where the victims seemed to be especially young black kids and poor women.
After UNICEF hired me, I worked for two years in Brazil. Then I moved to what was then the UNICEF office for Central America. The main office was in Guatemala where a terrible civil war raged. Here, instead of black people being killed, it was mostly the indigenous people who were being killed.
A similar civil war was underway in El Salvador. There we managed to arrange a truce for six years - twice each year for two days at a time. This at least allowed children to be vaccinated. Jim Grant said, "For the first time in the history of humanity, a war stopped for the sake of children.
I have been moving since then between Guatemala ( where my children and grandchildren live) and Brazil ( where most of my friends live).
I think I deserve to be called the wandering Armenian. I actually like the title. But this wandering Armenian happened to be in some of the most violent places on earth.
By the way, I had a gun pointed at my temple once in Brazil and another in Guatemala. In both cases the bullets refused to meet me…
My greatest wish for children in the world is for them to be able to live a just and peaceful life.
I have always wondered how, in this 21st century when people land safely on the moon and mars, wars keep being supported by "civilized" countries and as time goes by less armed people die and more poor and defenseless women and children get killed. Does this bother many people? What be done about it? After all, poor and innocent people keep being killed...
ReplyDeleteI think, Agop, you should also be called a Warrior for Peace and for "Criança - Esperanza"!
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