The image that I, as many of you might have, seen last week, of Alan Kurdi in the newspapers all across the world has shook me to the core. May be that sense of shock is what has prompted me to share with all of you the five images that involved children that make me hate this world every time I see them. These five images, for me, depict the worst that the world and we the people of this world should hang ourselves in shame of, if not for committing these crimes, but, because we have been silent and 'numb' to these things happening and let the world come to the state that it is right now.
The first such image that I ever remember is from closer home. It was the image of a father burying his daughter on the day after Bhopal gas tragedy on that fateful night of December 1984. The innocent child might not even have realized that she was breathing MIC (Methyl Iso Cyanide) which leaked out of Union Carbide's (now called Dow Chemicals) Bhopal plant in Central India. This lethal gas leakage has resulted in over 20,000 deaths and a lot more still facing the after effects even till date. I personally feel that it is the worst thing that can ever happen to a parent is to conduct the funeral of their son/daughter. There is nothing that comes anywhere closer to that in terms of heartbreak. May be that is the reason that this image that for me depicts the horrors of Bhopal gas tragedy taken by Pablo Bartholomew makes me skip a heartbeat and chokes me.
The closest second image that I will ever see as the worst image will definitely be that of Alan Kurdi's body swept ashore. Here was a Syrian family trying to run away from the horrors of their homeland and try reach 'the shores of safety'. They were refugees who were running away from a war - a civil war and militants. Instead, what this family ended up reaching was the worst horror. The family was trying to swim across and in the process, drowned in the Mediterranean Sea trying to swim to the Greek islands. Their final destination was to reach Canada where they wanted to seek asylum as Kurdish refugees from Syria facing the tyranny of IS. That image is so fresh in front of my eyes that it made me come back to my blog and share my anguish.
The next image that shook my core was that from the 1993 famine of Sudan. Here was the heart wrenching image of a kid who looked lifeless and starved. He might not have eaten for days if not weeks and he is not in a state to even move. But, famine is something that affects everyone, vultures included. So, there is this kid trying to move in search of food which he seems to have had may be days or weeks ago. And in the background is this vulture who is waiting for its 'food'. Later on I read that it was not just I but there were a lot of people who got shocked watching that image and it stood in my memory till date.
Then there is this image of a bunch of kids (again), running helter skelter during the Vietnam War. The naked girl was running, crying, screaming because she was burnt on her back which was a result of a South Vietnamese bombing of the area where she lived.
The last image that haunts me and I wanted to share in this post is that of the famous 'Afghan girl'. Here was a girl who was pictured in a refugee camp in Pakistan during the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan of the 80's. Her green, piercing eyes told the untold story of the gory tales of a civil war or an attack and what the affect of a war has on helpless civilians. This image has become so iconic (I use this word because of sheer lack of any negative word to describe it) with the Afghan refugee crisis and the future of a generation that was wiped out.
The unanswered questions that still poke me and my conscience is what did these innocent kids do that they had to pay with their lives? As a race, are we humans progressing really? Is war not unavoidable? Where is the end to human greed and aspiration? Are we humans the 'most evolved' or the 'torch bearers' on this planet and are we really worth calling ourselves the ones who are saving the planet when we don't value our own. Are we forgetting that this world is something that we have received on loan from our future generation and we need to return it back to the next generation at least as good as we have received it, if not better. Is 'collateral damage' such a simple term? Why doesn't the 'someone's freedom fighter another ones terrorist' axiom still find acceptance in the world? Can we, for once, give peace a chance? Can we, for once, let our children see a better tomorrow, see a rainbow, see a sunset, and have a smile on their face, and have that sparkle in their eyes ignite a better world?
PS: Though I have come across these five images in freely available on the www, I am not sure if any of these are still copyrighted and feel that the photographers deserve a mention to have shown us the mirror - a horrifying one at that. Afghan girl was taken by Steve McCurry for National Geographic. The Vietnamese girl was taken by Nick Ut for AP. The Bhopal gas tragedy image was taken by Pablo Bartholomew. The Sudan famine photograph was taken by Kevin Carter. Aylan Kurdi's image was captured by Nilüfer Demir.
