So-Much-Makes-Sense-Once-We-Get-the-Connections - Merry Christmas Everyone
One family Christmas in Australia
Celebrate Christmas with your sponsored child
A decade ago my last child was born
around the first Christmas we nearly lost him
I realised, in this world
life is a fickle thing
Across the world
ten million children
die every year
Often I find
I will go for an hour drive
and I will see three or four things
in someone's backyard
through the shop window
in the street
that seem marvellously funny,
moving and precious
moments frozen in time
happy snaps of our fortunate lives,
' Celebrate Christmas
with your sponsored child'
a 'World Vision' billboard
around the corner
greeted me
I suddenly realised
that my little sheltered life,
my sick baby and my family
are not the only things
I should worry about.
Soon there will be another Christmas
my youngest son is ten
and so is my sponsored child
'WANAKKAM!
May you be blessed with a long life
my dear sponsor.'
I read again his brief report of his life.
He lived in a small fishing village
in North West part of Sri Lanka
there was no water for drinking,
the climate was very hot and dry.
His Father could not catch any fish
so he started to farm,
the only food he ate was rice.
Few years back
a Christmas tidal wave came
and swept his village away
a long civil war started again
in his Tamil homeland
and was lost to the Sinhalese
ruling side.
He wishes to have a home,
to have enough to eat,
to go back to school,
to study to be a doctor,
instead
he is one of the 300,000 displaced
Tamils in Sri Lanka
locked in a internment camp
looking for a way out...
he is lucky
he still has his family around.
I folded his translated letter
with a big sigh
I realised, in this world
life is fickle thing
I am so grateful
he is still alive.
Across the world
ten million children
die every year
l go for another drive
and see careless people
through the shop windows
absorbed in pre-Christmas
shopping spree
moments frozen in time
happy snaps of our fortunate lives
at the same time
in the middle of the ocean
Tamil women and children
risk their lives
with people smugglers
fleeing the genocidal war
seeking a better life
on our shores
maybe next time
there will be
among them
my sponsored child.
They are refugees
asylum seekers
illegal immigrants
dispossessed of all necessities of life
'How many boat people should we allow in?'
ask Australians casually:
' If you cross the Afghan border illegally, you get shot,
but you want our jobs, free education and health care,
therefore you come here on your leaking boats.'
'Go back, where you belong.'
'Stop the increasing tide of uninvited immigrants.'
I read the new billboards
on a street corner
next to Christmas angels
spreading joy and love.
I mingle among the crowd
full of Christmas cheer and spirit
my fellow Australians
many of them immigrants,
'boat people of the past'
what happened to us?
We can stop the wretched
reach shore
we can violate international law
we do not care if there is no
safe place for them at home
we are protecting our borders,
our comfort, our way of life.
Across the world
ten million children
die every year
MERRY CHRISTMAS MY SPONSORED CHILD
I REALISED, IN THIS WORLD
AT THIS TIME, AMONG MY PEOPLE
LIFE IS JUST A BARGAIN
A FICKLE THING
I HOPE YOU ARE ALIVE NEXT YEAR...
