I feel like Violet Beauregarde nowadays. No, really. I think I’ve finished like 5 packets of gum in these 2 weeks alone. Not good. I may be addicted and need therapy of some sort, or perhaps I should join a gum-aholic support group or something. Hmm. Ok, enough bad habits talk.
First things first. The Srebrenica Talk. Let me first make it clear that Srebrenica is pronounced Sre-bre-nit-za, for starters. As I mentioned before, very few Malaysians made it that night. The auditorium was full to the brim alright, but Aisya (who thanked me for dragging her there which puzzled me as I thought she was genuinely interested to come anyway), Aufa, myself, a handful of other Malays and Chinese were the only non-Bosnians in the room. It didn’t feel like an international students gathering that night, and that was saddening, at least to me.
To cut straight to the point, the event began with a Documentary Video on Srebrenica. I wouldn’t say it was fantastic, I thought it was a little monotonous, but perhaps its because I’ve seen too many videos and footages of corpses and bones littering around to be touched anymore. I felt nothing. The interviews with the families of the victims broke me though. I couldn’t help it, and the Bosnian sister sobbing quietly next to me didn’t help much. Perhaps one or two wee drops rolled out, but that was it. Other than that, pure numbness. I’m just tired of it all, fed up with the apathy of the Muslim world. Something has to be done, and it will be done. It will. What doesn’t help is that the war criminals responsible are still loose, and I don’t get it. Hundreds of Muslims can get arrested around the world based on suspicions that they’re terrorists, but no one has time to capture 2 beasts who are still roaming about freely? Go figure.
The 2 professors that night, one from Poland and the other from Pakistan, were really cool. The Polish professor, Dr. Kopanski, began his talk with his booming voice something along these words:
‘I did not come here to give a formal speech, I did not even prepare one for tonight. I did not come here to be politaclly-correct either. I am a historian.’
And with that, I was hooked. He was very passionate in his talk, and you could see all that he expressed, he strongly believed in. I’ve never seen anyone quite so animated. I felt like applausing the whole time he was booming. One message that he gave us that night left a mark somewhere within. Only 2 words. ‘Never forget.’
The other professor wasn’t too bad either, although he took the formal approach and was more soft-spoken than Professor Kopanski, but his words were just as effective. He had also mentioned about the lack of other foreign students that particular night and was slightly diffident as Professor Kopanski had been confident.
Nevertheless, it had been a good night.
Enough said here.
