Strangers in the Kingdom by Rupen Das

Author:Rupen Das
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783682782
Publisher: Langham Creative Projects

Today’s “displaced sojourners” face exclusion, restrictions, and mistrust while trying to forge new lives, or while simply trying to survive. Political theorist Hannah Arendt writes vividly about the massive displacement she personally experienced in Europe during the aftermath of World War II. Her observation rings eerily true to the phenomenon unfolding today: “Once they had left their homeland they remained homeless; once they had left their state they became stateless; once they had been deprived of their human rights they were rightless, the scum of the earth.”[20] All too often the current rhetoric is that the displaced are scum to be avoided rather than human beings to be protected.

Interestingly, a theology of place helps explain why there are not more displaced individuals in the world. While millions have left their homes fleeing dangers and seeking the chance for life in new spaces, many millions choose not to leave. They willingly endure hardships and threats to their very lives by remaining in lands ravaged by war, poverty, human rights abuses, and insecurity. They do so because they intuitively know that life apart from their homes, places of history, and traditions and memories is not much of a life. It is not uncommon to hear, “Better to die in my own land than live in someone else’s.”

Amr al-Jabali lives in the Ashar neighbourhood of rebel-controlled East Aleppo. The 54-year-old is a painter and builder, and while there is plenty here which needs rebuilding and decoration, he doesn’t get much paid work these days.

He does, however, brave the bombs, the price hikes, and the electricity cuts of daily life in this part of the city, described by the UN as a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

But al-Jabali won’t leave. “I’ve never left Aleppo in my life, and by the grace of God I won’t ever leave,” he told The New Arab.

As many as 275,000 people remain in East Aleppo. They stay out of attachment to their homes, an inability to leave safely, for political reasons and others. These are the stories of a few of those who refuse to leave.

Al-Jabali is simply too attached to Aleppo, and has lived here since he was born more than a half century ago. Despite the current hardships, he even has hope for the future.[21]

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.