Einstein was a Refugee
Refugees are sometimes
active
have agency
they Leave, Flee, Sneak
Flow over boundary lines
unchecked
like rivers
they Escape, Hide
Cross territories
they Flood places
like unnatural disasters
are associated with
Asylum and Sanctuary
they are A Problem
An Issue
Sometimes they have a voice
if only passive
they become
Internally displaced
(slightly more dignified)
ordered out forced out asked to quit
resettled
relocated
They come in all shapes
sizes colours
types
Afghan, Kosovo, Vietnamese. Kashmiri
Palestinian Sri Lankan
Tamil Muslim Sinhalese
environmental
political
etc etc etc etc
If they are lucky they
metamorphose into
Returnees
If they are really lucky
they find their relatives
If they get really very lucky
they become famous.
For more information, click here.
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
Subscribe to Content Updates
iPhone app
The poet has good intentions(or dreams?):
Refugees to Returnees.
Thanks. Thanks again. And again.
How wonderful. How ….. wonderful. How … ….. wonderful.
But there has been no sign so far(except a small fraction of Sinhalese muffled before or after opening their heads and hearts in the last sixty one years)that there is any genuine space for that.
Yes …. we can create it ….. if there is a will on the part of the majority who decide the rulers.
But only if they’re told the ‘unspeakabke’ truth.
I think the majority of the majority have been either uninformed or misinformed for the last five decades about what has actually been happening to the Northeast as a result of all the ‘central’ decisions.
To begin with, what fraction of the South know what is in the reports of fact-finding missions of 2007/8 to the Northeast?
Puthinam, I think the poet is using irony. Einstien was one in a million, right, so the poet is saying that no one will be that lucky. Irony is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance between what one says or does and what one means or what is generally understood. I think you have misunderstood the poet, and from reading her other work i know she uses Irony a lot. She seems to be talking about the hopelessness of the refugees.
Amelie, thanks.
Ironies in peoms.
Stark truth in Sri Lanka.
Six decades.
No change in genocidal intent.
UDHR is sixty.
Genocide Convention is sixty.
They mean zero to some
In this world.
Ray of hope though
too late for Sri Lanka
Parliamentarians Netwrok for
Prevention of Conflict launched.
Let’s water it and
Manure it for future generations.
2009 UN Year of
Reconciliation.