Limelight: My brother's keeper By Lubna Abdel-Aziz It goes back, way back, to the beginning of time. Since Adam and Eve, rather their sons. Cain and Abel, brother has turned against brother until one or both perished. It is a sad tale, one of the saddest in the history of our civilisation. We can neither hide nor deny it, and know not how to stop it. This "brotherly" rivalry has spread from individuals to families, to groups, to tribes, and even countries. Such blood conflicts have become so rampant, we hardly raise an eyebrow on hearing of them. Is it then any wonder that Hamas and Fatah are feuding with each other, instead of their common enemy? Why this fratricidal violence? It is far too ambitious to reach an answer here, but at least we can review and examine this unnatural, or natural, tragic phenomenon. Jealousy was at the root of the legendary rivalry between Cain and Abel as first recorded in the Holy Bible (Genesis 4-9). Cain, the oldest son of Adam and Eve was angry when God preferred Abel's sacrifice of sheep "the firstlings of his flock" to Cain's, which was of "the fruit of the ground". Cain then "rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him", becoming the first murderer in the Bible. When the Lord asked Cain where Abel was, Cain made the famous remark: "I know not. Am I my brother's keeper?" Certainly not his keeper, but his killer. This act started a never-ending fratricidal bloodletting that tainted red the heart and soul of humankind. In reality, fiction or mythology, past, present, or future, we must face this inconvenient truth that depicts the essence of extreme passion we reserve for our dearest. Cain's heritage lives on in every age and every culture. It may surprise the gentle and docile among us, that even they are potentially capable of intense anger and rage against their next of kin. Criminologists agree that most violence is fratricidal, taking place in the home and among family and friends. "Random murders are relatively rare." Between this love and hate lies the passion and romance that can turn to violence and death. Ancient history recounts numerous power feuds between brothers. The twins Romulus and Remus together founded ancient Rome, but jealousy and greed soon set in and Remus was killed at the hands of his brother Romulus. Could it be that our bitter hatred is saved for those more like us than those who are different? Does that explain the Hutu massacre of the Tutsis at Rwanda in 1994. What about the slaughter at Darfur? Sudanese kill Sudanese every day. Not only do we do nothing about it, we think nothing of it. The conventional theory is that we fear what is different, and fear soon begets hatred. The truth is far more complex. While the stranger, the so-called "other" may seem hostile and threatening to us, the bigger threat lies in the familiar -- in that close "other". Familiarity does breed contempt, hatred, violence, murder and war. Do we hate our nearest because we know them only too well? Like, not unlike, generates hatred and violence. "Civil war has been a far greater scourge and the future looks to emulate the past," writes Professor Russel Jacoby of the University of California, Los Angeles. In the last 50 years the number of casualties of intra-state conflicts runs roughly five times higher than inter-state wars. Divisions are not of alien but kindred peoples. This is evident whichever way the globe turns. They yet it was not long ago that one of the richest countries in the world then, and is perhaps the richest now, plunged into a civil war between the North and South -- the American Civil War (1861-1865). The South needed no restriction on slavery, while the North wanted slavery abolished. The war ended with the North's victory and soon after slavery was abolished. Bitter feelings between Northerners and Southerners however, sadly linger on from a war that took more American lives than any other. Vietnam, once a Chinese territory, was overtaken by France in the late 1800s until Japan occupied it in WWII. With Japan's defeat, France tried to regain control, but the communists, headed by Ho Chi Minh, gained power in Northern Vietnam. By 1973, the communists overtook the South and unified the country, despite the aid of US forces. Some disputes have never been settled and many countries still remain divided like Korea, China and Ireland. Indian Muslims formed their own state of Pakistan in 1948, Bangladesh separated from Pakistan in 1971. The list is endless of divided nations, though they share the same heritage. A sad chapter in modern history has been the Irish conflict between North and South, between Protestant and Catholic. The conflict lasted for decades, and much blood was shed. Ireland is now an independent republic enjoying a state of calm, but the underlying hatred between Irish Protestants and Irish Roman Catholics, sadly persists. Are the Serbs so different from the Croats? They are of the same ethnic group, "speak more or less the same language, come from the same racial state," Until the collapse of Yugoslavia they lived as neighbours and friends, and they could not tell each other apart. The same could be said about Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Muslim and Christian Bosnians. Acceding to a theory put forth by Sigmund Freud it is the little dissimilarities in persons who are otherwise alike that arouse feelings of strangeness and enmity. If we are so similar, sharing similar tastes and desires, should that not bring us together? Or do opposites really attract, and similarities only magnify minor differences rather than accept them? Most tragic of all is the MidEast struggle over Palestine, between the Arab states and Israel. Jews and Arabs are children of Abraham. While they lived side by side in peace and harmony for hundreds of years, the invasion of European Jews in the area following WWII, displaced their Palestinian brethren, took over their lands, and left them stranded, homeless, and helpless. Material gain of territory and property is often a major reason for conflicts, but such a view ignores the reservoirs of hatred and resentment embedded in the heart of man's primal emotions. Why are Iraqi Sunnis fighting Iraqi Shias? There is something mournful about man's most glorious monument, brotherhood, reduced to fratricide. Will we find no brother to bury us or mourn us? Nietzsche spoke of an èber being, a Superman. Perhaps only he can be his brother's keeper. And they shall fight, everyone against his brother -- Holy Bible: Isaiah (19:12)
