Healing Trauma: Perspectives And Attitudes, 5

Yesterday I was Skyping with my new Colombian friend. He lives in Medellin which just twenty years ago was an axis city for the narcoterrorism that was sweeping that unfortunate and incredibly beautiful country. When I asked him about the current peace and reconciliation process he unleashed quite the verbal volley. I had been trying to encourage him to practice his English with me but he could only let loose for almost half an hour in his native Spanish expressing in very clear accents his cynicism and disappointment while venting his rage and sadness about the many flaws and hypocrisies in the process. Rather, it seems, a dog and pony show to make the Colombian government look good and benevolent. As he went on about how children and young people are being particularly impacted and as he waxed on about the vast social inequality in his country, for example the way the children of the bourgeoisie get sent off to safe havens in Europe or North America to study in good universities while the children of the campesinos and poor workers end up getting recruited and brainwashed and transformed into little more than child soldiers that are going to get their heads blown off, it was very clear to me that I had touched a nerve. He also seemed a bit miffed with me for wanting to conclude the conversation (we'd already been online together for almost one and a half hours) so that I could start dinner, but I could see that he was needing to vent and likely will want to vent some more about this very controversial topic during our next conversation, probably tomorrow. Stay tuned, Gentle Reader. I will probably not mention this to my friend, but I have previously written that it was during my first visit to Colombia, in Bogota, where I really became conscious of this whole phenomena of collective trauma. I find that it is not my place to judge, pontificate or form opinions. This is so not my battle, but to listen respectfully and without forming judgments when my friend, or any other Colombian wants to spout off about FARC and their equally dreadful government. These people have been grievously wounded by this half century of violence, kidnapping and extrajudicial killing and murder. What we can best do for them as friends is hear them out and continue offering our support for them while they struggle to find and develop their own solutions. This process of reconciliation is not going to be equal, neither is it going to be welcome to all Colombians, especially those who think that guilty members of FARC should be punished with hard jail time. This is going to take a long time. We need to be there for them and we also need to keep our smug mouths shut and learn something from the Colombian people, especially given how easy life is here in dear chilly old Canada.