The Example We Have Given Our Children…
I recently came across this photo, which was taken at a Refugee camp in Baghdad on November 16 2004. While I am very used to seeing images of children who are victims of violence, this image struck me harder than many of the bloody photos of war I have seen. The reason it took me back a bit more wasn’t so much the fact that the children where playing, but while both boys have guns in their hands, their expressions and body languages each tells a different story. The true fear in the younger boys face makes your heart sink into your stomach. While the expression on the older boys face is more like one of elation and joy over the mere fact that he could kill the other boy if he really wanted to, and sends a shiver down your spine.
Children look to us, the adults, the leaders, for examples and for the children of war torn countries the examples that we give them are nothing but violence and death. Therefore children of war and violence are more likely to grow into violent adults, if they make it that far, than those who live in peace. However all of our children are affected, as the images of war and violence invade all of our lives on a daily basis. Many children know nothing except war, poverty and displacement. These children will spend their entire childhoods, surrounded by violence and these are the examples of adulthood that will be forever etched into their impressionable minds.
One wonders when looking back at the photograph what the fate of these two boys is, what they have become in the last three years. Are they still alive? Have they walked separate paths, did the younger one choose peace and the older one choose violence as his road to adulthood? Will they ever live a happy normal life?
The saddest part about this image is that all too often the guns in the children’s hands are not that of toys.