MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
The
Christmas season invites us, as an individual and as an organization, to
reflect about our motivation to work as educators and
teachers.
Despite all the
misery that threatens the happiness of people, parents and children alike.
Despite war, hunger,
epidemics or pandemics, envy, malice and hate, children are born every day in
every place in the world.
Children whose
parents believe in the future.
Children who have the
right to love and care, the right to freedom to play and grow into individuals.
Young girls and boys
who have the right to become adults like us.
It is good to celebrate Christmas with the
children of the world in our thoughts.
The poet Wilmink
reminds us that “year after year, Christmas seems to promise peace, but the
guns thunder again when the holiday lights
are extinguished”.
But there are always
chances and hope. As a worldwide
organization of educators, we want to keep hoping that we, each of us, can
contribute to improving the happiness of the children, the adolescents, and,
yes even the adults.
Let us be clear: what
unites us is the love of the children!
The playfulness of
the children and their happiness give us hope, despite all the sorrow and
despair we see far away, and sometimes close
to us.
Merry Christmas, and
a healthy, happy and peaceful 2015!
Guy Bourdeaud’hui
WUCT UMEC President
An alternative 2014 Christmas message
and
wishes for a new year…
It is a nice custom to wish a Merry
Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year to our many family members, friends
and colleagues. Our messages of
friendship, sympathy and empathy reflect a strong expression of altruistic and
positive human relations.
UMEC-WUCT wishes to express their
warm wishes to all the readers of this message…
But this year, I want to express
myself twice: first with “general wishes” (see above), but also with an
alternative message, one with a “bleeding heart”. I do this, not because UMEC-WUTC is in
trouble (quite the opposite!!!), but because many people are encountering real
problems in recent years.
We are continuously reminded about
global warming, the use of poisonous and non-biodegradable substances,
widespread hunger and diseases, shipwrecked migrants or asylum seekers,
innocent victims of war or internal strife.
But what strikes me most is the nonchalance, the carelessness shown by
most people and organizations to these human tragedies.
Saturated as we are by these images,
we are emotionally dulled by the worst crimes against humanity, sometimes in the
name of Allah and with the perpetrators unrepentant and triumphant. Has the world failed in its education to the
point that there is no respect, charity or other form of altruism? Is what we see in the twenty-first century
the depressing result of our efforts to teach a child to become and remain “a
good person”?
Do we miss the courage to judge the
daily newscasts with righteous indignation?
Or do we look the other way, to other more interesting programs,
blacking out the stories and pictures of the helpless masses of martyrs - a
mere minor news item which we cannot influence anyway. How many children and adults pay their
religious beliefs with their life, leaving the desert sand soaked with their
blood, while responsible leaders, political or religious, avert their eyes and
are too cowardly to take action or to clearly condemn what is happening?
Do we miss the courage to bear
witness about what happens to people in war zones, where fellow men and women,
colleagues, innocents are murdered in the most abhorrent ways – even crucified!
– for no other reason than being supposedly different? Don’t we have a duty to react to a holocaust
of followers of a different religion or different race or ethnicity?
We see violence, vengeance, war
enter openly through the main gate of human behavior, while peace tries to
squeeze through little cracks in the backdoor.
What an outrageous
insensitivity!! And this in 2014!!
Are we sufficiently aware that,
while we sing “Silent Night, Holy Night”, one more Tibbhirine may be repeated by followers of some crazy
fundamentalist movement. The most
diverse human ordeals render any peace wishes rather lame.
Mind you, could some unknown
colleagues have taken part in atrocities?
These colleagues may have lost their moral compass, to survive in
extremely difficult circumstances. But
who are we to judge them? But can we
keep ignoring what we see and know? How
do we answer this question: “What have you done for your fellow man?”
For the new generations there
remains a forceful and urgent message: spend much more time with children of
all ages, invest more time in educating and supporting the next generations,
bearing witness of a renewed faith and an all-encompassing approach to
education which finds its strength in the high values of our Christianity.
Let me conclude with the message of
the angels in Bethlehem (Luke 2, 14):
“Glory to God in the
highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men.”
Guy Bourdeaud’hui
WUCT UMEC President
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