If you read anything at all today, read this. The story of these people deserves more attention than it has been getting up to now. More attention from the international media and from international aid organisations as well.
This 25 July 2014 article from The Wall Street Journal opened my eyes to a side of the MH17 crash that I'd barely given any thought to up until now.
Source: After Flight 17 Crash, Agony, Debris and Heartbreak in Ukraine Villages - The Wall Street Journal
Reading this article, I feel like it deserves a second title; A title that represents my personal point-of-view. I'm calling it "The Other Side Speaks." Because that is how I feel after reading this article, as if I've heard 'the other side' speak for the first time.
"The Other Side Speaks" could be the title of an episode of television series Lost. In all honesty, reading this amazing article also feels a bit like I'm reading a script for a Lost-like production, in a strange way. Since the crash of MH17, the story (as far as I've been concerned) has been mostly focused on the crash and on those who crashed (on how to get the bodies back, on how the next of kin are coping, on how the effected countries are coping...). In the fictional world of Lost, the series follows the survivors of a plane crash on what they first think is an uninhabited island. As the series progresses, the island turns out to be a very, very freaky place. They also meet the locals. What made Lost so intriguing - and why I'm comparing a horrible real-life crash to a fictional television show - is how they showed the same events from the different points of view of the characters, only revealing the full truth layer by layer and story by story. We saw events not just from the point of view of one character or one group, but from many characters and all the groups involved.
In the real world of rocket attacks on innocents and bodies falling from the sky into the houses and gardens of other innocents, it's a humbling experience to realise that I've been so focused on what seems to matter most right now to me and those around me - closure, answers, justice - that I've forgotten to care about the other side. I forgot about the poor, poor people who will forever remember the horrors they witnessed after MH17 was shot down. They deserve our care, attention, love and compassion just as much as the family members and friends of the doomed passengers and crew do.
This 25 July 2014 article from The Wall Street Journal opened my eyes to a side of the MH17 crash that I'd barely given any thought to up until now.
Then the plane crashed. The cabin's second-row overhead compartment is in a tree across from the village hall—and suitcases and clothes are in backyards and gardens of square-windowed cottages.
Villagers dashed into their basements, fearing a bomb attack. Residents in a nearby village ran for the church, certain that the world was coming to an end. A colleague of Ms. Voloshina screamed after being nearly hit by the plane's cargo hold. Days later, the 43-year-old mayor found the bottom half of a man's body in the shrubs next to her office. She has barely slept since then.
"I know that for others I need to look strong, assured and composed," says Ms. Voloshina, her hands still trembling a week after the July 17 crash. "But when I'm not at work, I cry at home into my pillow."
Source: After Flight 17 Crash, Agony, Debris and Heartbreak in Ukraine Villages - The Wall Street Journal
Reading this article, I feel like it deserves a second title; A title that represents my personal point-of-view. I'm calling it "The Other Side Speaks." Because that is how I feel after reading this article, as if I've heard 'the other side' speak for the first time.
"The Other Side Speaks" could be the title of an episode of television series Lost. In all honesty, reading this amazing article also feels a bit like I'm reading a script for a Lost-like production, in a strange way. Since the crash of MH17, the story (as far as I've been concerned) has been mostly focused on the crash and on those who crashed (on how to get the bodies back, on how the next of kin are coping, on how the effected countries are coping...). In the fictional world of Lost, the series follows the survivors of a plane crash on what they first think is an uninhabited island. As the series progresses, the island turns out to be a very, very freaky place. They also meet the locals. What made Lost so intriguing - and why I'm comparing a horrible real-life crash to a fictional television show - is how they showed the same events from the different points of view of the characters, only revealing the full truth layer by layer and story by story. We saw events not just from the point of view of one character or one group, but from many characters and all the groups involved.
In the real world of rocket attacks on innocents and bodies falling from the sky into the houses and gardens of other innocents, it's a humbling experience to realise that I've been so focused on what seems to matter most right now to me and those around me - closure, answers, justice - that I've forgotten to care about the other side. I forgot about the poor, poor people who will forever remember the horrors they witnessed after MH17 was shot down. They deserve our care, attention, love and compassion just as much as the family members and friends of the doomed passengers and crew do.