Reality of Second World War still around

Have you ever heard from your grandmother and your grandfather about how it was to be a child during The War? Have you ever heard the stories from your great grandparents on the life they lived during The War? I have heard them several times and I have not believed my own ears when I understood how horrible it must have been. Just to mention a few: Secret police, bombing, torture, prison camps, racial differences, religious differences, hunger, famine and maybe most of all the unsafety. Nothing was sure. To plan ahead just one month was a joke, a luxury. You could be in pieces by evening or just several minutes from now.

Do you see where I am going with this? Do you understand what I find myself having to say right here and now? War means war. With this I mean that every civilian now enclosed in Gaza is in these writing minutes in The War. We Norwegians have a near relationship to The War, even after almost three generations. What happened during this time was so horrible we still remember the details. Can you tell me anything we remember better then the years of The War? The War is also, by the way, on a longer visit to Sudan, DR Congo, Sri Lanka, Somali, Afghanistan, Colombia and many other places. The War is truly an enemy of human kind. We agreed on this after the Second World War. We answered this by establishing supranational organizations and strengthening the ones who were already there. These are designed to work on the lowest level of human decency all humans SHALL be treated after.

And then what do I see today? I see a bunch of people highly educated or otherwise strongly opinionated people criticize and hack away on the problems of these organizations. That is their contribution. It is possibly not hard to agree that there are enough people out there to evaluate the work, so can we who itch for participation and action get together and drown this misery with our hope and ability for action? What say YOU? I would gladly walse straight into Gaza with YOU right now if we go there to save life and demand the basic level human dignity amongst the fighting. And the same goes for all the other places.

So what do you say? We are either a part of the solution or the problem. Silence is acceptance. And I do not very often see criticizers as part of a solution, I find them criticizing the solution as well. Let us get behind the forces that represent Human Rights and The rules of War. These are the basic demands for respect of human dignity. This is what we SHALL have. And we do not ask for much. Come with me and screw all the people sitting comfortably at home with all their knowledge and strong opinions. A human rights fighter in Sudan said to me: “The state sets up a large number of fake Human Rights Organizations to drown the ones who are serious. This is after they realize they cannot stop us. And I understand them, because if they did not and we would have our voice freely distributed we would very soon take over in just share numbers.”

This is the power we have been given. We as humans have an own ability to realize what we crave the strongest and we are without a doubt the majority of earth who wants these rules respected and upheld. All I need is YOU, and then you say the same. Soon we are annoyingly many.

Write to me on: johmoetho@gmail.com and read my blog at: lifeofthomasmj.blogspot.com. On mail we can speak directly on topic or you could just go for it through Red Cross (Or your local Red Cross Branch) or Amnesty: http://www.amnesty.no/web.nsf/pages/index (It is also a infinite number of organizations to work from, but in my personal opinion Red Cross forms the best network platform as a starting point)

All the best

Thomas Moe Johansen, Youth Delegate in Sudan for Norwegian Red Cross.