I'm posting this instead of putting it in the relevant comments thingy because I know some of my readers don't read the comments.
Casade, I hope your family and friends in Lebanon stay safe and come through this whole business as unscathed as possible. Please pass on my best wishes if you're in contact with them.
I know what you mean about things going backwards over there. I don't remember a time when there wasn't a war or threat of war going on in that region. And even when the war's two countries over it's still too bloody close and must wreak some serious economic havoc.
When I trained as an English teacher I learned a set of questions to ask my migrant students. The questions assessed the student's level of experience at language learning and their general education. From the answers they gave us we could start them off at levels that suited each one of them.
Two of the questions made me think about how very lucky I am. One was 'how old where you when you started school and when you finished?' and the second was 'was there a war when you were a child?'.
That second one was the killer. I was born after World war Two, after the threat of wartime invasion was well and truly over. I never felt the fear of invasion and war on home soil. Bombs never fell in my childhood, my streets were never shelled, I never played in bomb craters or spent long nights listening to other people's houses being destroyed. I went to school every day and got a full education and, whatever else happened there, death never dropped out of the sky.
Don't ever think I don't appreciate how lucky I am to have been born Anglo-saxon Australian.
Just saw the news on Aunty about all the evacuees still waiting for ships to get out of Lebanon and they said there's Australian citizens fleeing Israel as well. And of course Australian citizens aren't the only ones fleeing either country. Here's hoping they all get out in time and all your families, Jewish and Lebanese and anyone else who's there, stay safe.
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