BY GERRY CHIDIAC
Lessons in Learning
In 2022, Dr. Gabor Maté and his son Daniel published The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture. The book challenges us to look at the world we live in and reflect on whether our common practices are actually good for us. The Matés focus largely on individual health, but as we examine the disintegration of violent empires, it becomes clear that the colonial mindset – a way of thinking that has been normalized over the last several centuries – is unhealthy for society.
How then does a healthy society function?
At the start of the Age of Discovery, Europe embraced xenophobic and antisemitic fervor, resulting in the infamous Spanish Inquisition. Many Jewish citizens of Europe fled for their lives and found refuge in the Ottoman Empire, including in Aleppo, Syria, the city my grandparents came from.
These new immigrants, or refugees, became part of the societal fabric in Aleppo, and everyone benefited. To this day, in Jewish communities with ties to Aleppo, they light an extra candle on each night of the Hanukkah celebration to represent their gratitude for the safety and tolerance they received.
We often forget that for centuries, the Ottoman Empire thrived because it provided relative safety for the diverse religious groups that lived within its realm. My ancestors, with ties to the first Christians, lived peacefully with their Muslim and Jewish neighbours. It was not until European interference in the 19th and 20th centuries that this Age of Coexistence broke down, leading to the collapse of the Empire and the current chaos in the region.
Aleppo experienced a massacre of Christians in 1850, and my relatives left the city in the early 1900s, shortly before neighbouring Armenian Christians experienced genocide.
We found refuge and safety by practicing the family craft of silk weaving in Paterson, New Jersey. Since that time, we have diversified, and, similar to the Jewish refugees who came to Aleppo, we have thrived. Today, most of us hold advanced university degrees, and we are scattered across the continent.
Like the Jewish immigrants to Aleppo, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Healthy members of a healthy society understand the importance of expressing this sentiment. As they light an extra candle during Hanukkah, I make a land acknowledgement here in Canada, not out of obligation, but out of gratitude.
It is distressing to see Canadians who do not share the same appreciation for where we live. There is a sickness in the colonial mindset that makes one unable to experience sincere gratitude, that makes one hold onto a sense of entitlement, blithely ignoring the manner in which our country was colonized. This is accompanied by a fear that one will lose what one has. One regularly hears the unfounded and irrational argument, for example, that Indigenous land rights will result in the loss of homes and businesses. Such xenophobic thinking results in addiction to violence, consumerism, power, and substances. This culminates not only in self-destruction but in the societal destruction we are witnessing in the United States under the Trump administration.
We need to remember that there are healthy alternatives.
My ancestors in Aleppo did the right thing by welcoming strangers who were fleeing from extreme racism. These grateful immigrants became a part of the fabric of their society. I am thankful that when our time of need arrived, my family was also able to find a place of refuge.
Today I live in Prince George, BC, and I am forever grateful to the Lheidli T’enneh for welcoming me to their unceded, ancestral territory. I sincerely hope that I can respond to their kindness by contributing to the well-being of everyone in this community, and by building a healthier society and a healthier world.
Gerry Chidiac is an award-winning high school teacher specializing in languages, genocide studies and work with at-risk students. Check out his website here. Find him on Facebook. Or on Twitter @GerryChidiac