Children need more than wise words - they need examples

“Many children have been abandoned by their parents,” she told the pontiff. “Many of them have fallen victims to evil things, like drugs and prostitution.”
Instead of giving a direct answer, the pope advised his young audience to learn how to weep. He also called on them to learn how to love. Real love, he said, is about “loving and letting yourself be loved”.
Finally he explained the “three languages” – to think well, to feel well and to do well.
I was moved, but these children can best learn these lessons only by being shown examples. There are plenty available.
The deadly attack on journalists at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo elicited shock and grief around the globe. There was anger, too, which has fuelled a wave of anti-Islamic sentiment against Muslim migrants in European countries. Fortunately, the majority has rejected that generalising response. The millions who marched through Paris with world leaders were demonstrating their unity against terrorism, not Muslims.
Six decades ago, when Germany was tightly controlled by the Nazi’s Gestapo, it was Jews who were declared the general enemy. But not everyone turned against them. “The Book Thief”, a 2006 novel inspired by true stories, tells of the lessons that 12-year-old girl Liesel learns when her foster parents decide to hide a Jewish man from the authorities, risking their lives to do so. Liesel learns from them how to differentiate the good people from the bad.
Another example can be found in Halina Birenbaum, a Polish girl who was sent to concentration camps during World War II, including the infamous Auschwitz. Aged 11, she survived the hardships in Nazi-occupied Warsaw shielded by the love of her family, chiefly her mother. At Auschwitz, she met some good people, including a few German-speaking guards. Neither books nor films nor even a visit to the camp-turned-museum can evoke the depth of hardship and horror suffered by those imprisoned there. Yet the young girl endured it all with a heart that remained open and hopeful. When the camp was liberated, she was just 15.
In her memoir “Hope is the Last to Die”, written after she had moved to Israel and started her own family, Birenbaum detailed the hardships and the kindness she had encountered in the camp. The recounting is emotional but without hatred. She sets a good example of how to see people as they are, even while living under unbearable conditions; how to disregard the bad and how to love the good in people regardless of their nationality or religion.
I was also touched by the attitude of the lead character in “Ida”, Sunday’s opening film of the Polish Film Festival in Bangkok. An orphaned girl brought up in a convent is about take her vows as a Catholic nun when she discovers that she actually comes from a Jewish family. She remains impassive as she’s told that all were killed, except her, who was left at the convent. The news takes her on a quest to find their grave, then into a brush with earthly pleasures, but nothing dissuades her from the determination to become a nun. She experiences real life with an open mind and decides to move on.
The mood lightened during “Walesa”, the second of seven films being screened in this week’s festival. Poles in the audience giggled throughout the movie, tickled by Lech Walesa’s puns. They were silent only when footage of the hardships in the 1980s and 1990s appeared on screen.
It reminded me of comments I’d heard from Poles, that the country’s young generation don’t share the collective memory of those difficult times under Communism.
It’s fascinating to consider how Thais today think about their history.
Channel 3 is currently airing a new series, based on a novel about Bang Rajan, the frontier village that was devastated by the Burmese before they marched on to sack Ayutthaya. Well, the series should stir up plenty of nationalist sentiment, with the Burmese depicted as the villains.
The timing could be unfortunate, though, with Thailand seeking to play a leading role in uniting all Asean nations as the Asean Economic Community era gets underway. We might ask ourselves how hatred towards our neighbour will help accomplish this dream.
It is also fascinating to consider what youngsters today think about social division, with all sorts of hatred swirling about. When I tweeted a report of Yingluck saying she had been impeached three times, a follower responded “Good to know she can count”. (And Yingluck is being called far worse things than a child.)
The Constitution Drafting Committee might not be to everyone’s taste, but it should win our backing for its proposal that “hate speech” be
illegal. They agreed on this last week, citing the need to curb abuse of
freedom of expression that creates social divisions and hatred among citizens.
Restrictions on hate speech will be imposed on all media, including the social media.
However, there remains the question – and it applies to many other things in Thailand – of how this can be enforced.
In an echo of the words of our Lord Buddha, Pope Francis told us to think well, to feel well and to do well. It is up to us, adults, to give good examples to our children. We face a dismal future if our children do not know how to understand, let alone love, others.