Thought for the Week: Fear or hope
Ian Kirk-Smith reflects on the light and goodness in people
In December 1916 Britain faced a third Christmas of conflict. The war had not been ‘over by Christmas’ 1914 – as young volunteers had been told in the autumn of that year.
Technological progress had improved the lives of millions in the nineteenth century. Two years of war and the huge loss of life in 1916 at the Somme and Verdun, however, had shown that the ‘industrialisation of warfare’ was also a consequence of this revolution. Millions were to die in the slaughter and the war shattered the optimism and faith of many in the future. The poet W B Yeats was, some years later, to write:
Civilisation is hooped together, brought
Under a rule, under the semblance of peace
By manifold illusion; but man’s life is thought,
And he, despite his terror, cannot cease
Ravening through century after century,
Ravening, raging and uprooting that he may come
Into the desolation of reality:
Many people, today, feel our civilisation is also a kind of illusion. Is there real peace or merely the semblance of peace in the United States and Europe? Nationalist movements are on the rise, populist leaders thrive, the ravening, raging and terror of ISIS continues, the uprooting of millions in Africa has created a refugee crisis, and there is desolation s on the streets of Aleppo and Mosul.
Should we fear or hope? On 28 November a plane, whose passengers included the Brazilian football team Chapecoense, crashed in mountains near the city of Medellin in Colombia. Seventy-one passengers died. Nearly all the Chapecoense team were killed.
The small club, from the town of Chapecó in Brazil, had been travelling to play the first leg of a major competition – the Copa Sudamericana final – against the Columbian team Atlético Nacional. It was to be the biggest match in the history of Chapecoense and the culmination of a remarkable ‘fairy tale’ – their dramatic rise through the ranks of the Brazilian leagues.
The response of the global football community to the tragedy has been remarkable. Many rival Serie A teams in Brazil offered Chapecoense players on free loans. These same teams also asked the national football authority to exempt Chapecoense from relegation for three years. Atletico Nacional said Chapecoense should be declared Copa Sudamericana champions. The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) has agreed. This extraordinary gesture by Atlético Nacional deprives them of massive financial benefits, as the winners qualify for the lucrative Copa Libertadores, South America’s premier competition – their Champions League. These benefits will now go to Chapecoense – a club currently without a first team. Footballers and their supporters throughout the world have worn black bands and held moments of silence at their matches over the past fortnight.
The tragedy on a hillside in Columbia has released a wave of kindness and compassion. It has prompted a heartwarming, loving, human response and demonstrated, in a world of much darkness, the enormous light and goodness that exists in people.
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