Dedicated to the ordinary people who lost their lives in the recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the ordinary people who lost their fathers, sons, and husbands in the Russia-Ukraine war, and to our future and those across the coast.
Waking up in the morning, Israel declares a state of war.
Actually, I don't really understand the history of the Middle East. My impression of the Middle East has always been that it is a mysterious region, with conflicts and wars accompanied by danger. Recently, I have been following the "Zhu Zhiwen's Global Cycling" series, particularly the chapter on "Afghanistan". In his videos, besides a majority of male groups, there are also scenes of him holding various weapons. With these video clips and his authentic personality, he gained over 100,000 followers in just a few days. I think, apart from liking this blogger, people are also interested in the weapons, Afghanistan, and the Taliban that appear in his videos. Watching his videos is a way to seek excitement and satisfy curiosity.
In the morning, the news that caught my attention was about a woman named Shani Louk who was killed by Hamas while participating in a peace music festival. Her naked body was tied to the back seat of a pickup truck and paraded through the streets, subjected to insults from the surrounding crowd. The few seconds of video made me feel very uncomfortable. I can't understand why people would insult the body of someone who has no connection to them, why they would be so excited. Even with cultural conflicts, religious conflicts, or conflicts between nations, an ordinary person should not despise a deceased person who has no relation to them.
I don't understand the history of the Middle East, and I don't want to delve into who is right or wrong in this article, just like the Russia-Ukraine war that broke out a year ago, each side has their own stance and reasons. However, as an ordinary person living in mainland China in 2023, I feel very lost. This sense of loss is not because of Shani Louk's death or the emergence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. My point of loss lies in the fact that to this day, historical tragedies continue to repeat themselves, and as insignificant carbon-based beings, humans fail to learn from experience and the tragedies of history will continue to repeat, as if Nolan's "Apocalypse" has been playing for thousands of years; my point of loss lies in the fact that culture should be the bond that connects all people on Earth, even if we have different religious beliefs and different life backgrounds, the basic human culture of goodness and beauty should be shared. However, culture is now dividing us, separating people of the same race and even evolving into mutual hatred.
Indeed, different cultures have different values, different cultures have different behavioral patterns and ways of living. But even with the many differences between cultures in the world, the core of different cultures should always be composed of the basic truth, goodness, and beauty of humanity. Based on this core of truth, goodness, and beauty, people from different cultural backgrounds will respect and tolerate each other's cultures, forming a global village. The term "global village" is too outdated. I first came across this term in 2008 when I was still in primary school. In my impression, that was a beautiful era because the 2008 Beijing Olympics engraved the concepts of "global village," "Olympic village," and "world village" in my mind.
In June 2019, I went to Hong Kong to attend a concert by Chen Sheng, a Taiwanese music producer whom I really like. Due to some political reasons, Chen Sheng was banned in mainland China. That June, Hong Kong happened to be holding large-scale protest movements. On the way to the Kowloon Convention and Exhibition Center, my friend and I asked the taxi driver what those people were doing. When the driver heard our Mandarin accent, he said, "They are dissatisfied. You came at the right time. The queues were very long a few days ago, and the roads were blocked." The driver paused for a moment and said, "But, this can only happen in Hong Kong, not in Macau."
I can't remember the specific scenes of that concert, where the Taiwanese artist Chen Sheng, in his sixties, sang. I only remember that in that concert, he spoke very little. At that stage, there were no words to be said, only desperate singing. Before the concert ended, he mentioned that his next concert would be in Malaysia. I don't know if he would speak more at that concert in Malaysia.
War not only destroys our homes but also our culture. Once consensus is broken, it takes more effort to rebuild it. I always hope that the concept of the global village can continue to be passed down, but I also know that in the face of power and desire, all cultures are not worth mentioning, and this is also the cause of tragedy. In these years of economic development, we only respond to interests, using money to decorate our souls, and we remain silent about the tragedies that have happened, are happening, or will happen, using absurd words to interpret our barren history.
At this point, there is nothing more to say. I think of Mr. Chen Sheng's "No Longer Letting You Be Alone":
Let me gently kiss your face
Wipe away your sad tears
Let you know that in times of loneliness
There is still me accompanying you
Let me softly sing to you
Like the wind blowing on the grassland
Just want to quietly listen to your breath
Embrace you tightly until dawn
The road is long, let's walk together
Walking from the study to the balcony, I open the window, and outside the window is pitch black. It is now early morning, I don't know what time it is where you are. We live under the same sky, just in different time zones, yet we have to play out all kinds of love, hate, and emotions on the Earth that gave us life. It is already late autumn night, and the wind is already chilly. Let this article be blown away by the wind, erasing everything that has happened and all that is to come.
Lesenelir