Do not be kind!

Many of the people pretended that they cared about Caroline Flack’s death and re-posted her last words: be kind. However, this sense of niceness is like February snow, beautiful and charming, but it does not last. I know this because the people that drove her to suicide are still enjoying the fame and attention they had before, and still as nasty as before. And the millions who looked angry of what happened to Caroline Flack, completely forget what was that “be kind” all about.

As for me, I teach my kids to not be kind, a million roses will not stop a bullet, will not shut a racist up, will not silence a bully. I teach them that kindness does nothing to us, did nothing to us, and it is the weapon of the loser: useless. I teach my kids that Rosa Parks was not kind when she challenged the seating arrangements on the bus. I teach my kids that Mr Churchill was not kind when he declared war on Hitler. I teach my children that the Suffrage, anti-slavery, labour rights and all things that matters in history were not achieved through kindness, on the contrary, fight, resist, and be stubborn, loud, and rude to defend your rights and the rights of others.  

Be kind! Many people change their Facebook or Twitter profile, then went on to watch Pierse Morgan, buy the Sun and the Daily Mail, and felt so good about themselves: FUCK YOU. Caroline Flack is dead, if you want to be kind to her then stop the haters and those who spread hate, otherwise the congeniality you are showing is more towards the abusers rather than the victims.

Every time this country witness a disaster, which maybe manifested in many shapes or forms, you see the public anger rising quickly and then as if nothing has happened, we forget. It is right and brave to move o and forward, but we must not allow those who facilitated such things to happen to go on and do it again and again.

If you really and truly believed that the death of Caroline Flack was avoidable, then do not let get away with it, do not let them do it again. Be kind to those who are desperate, those in need, and for the bullies and trolls: fuck them.

  

Ahmad Baker

PS: the photo below is a cartoon published after the Finsbury Mosque attack in June 2017. The Artist put the logos of some the hate spreading newspapers on the side of the van used in the attack, portraying them as sponsors of hate.  

Whipps Cross Memorial service

(I was honoured to deliver this message at the staff memorial service held on 13.02.202)

 “On this earth what makes life worth living:
Birth of a child,
Falling in love,
The reoccurrence of April,
And the scent of Coffee at dawn.”*
On this earth what makes life worth living:
September’s end,
Winter sun shines,
Tears in airports,
And Funerals of loved ones

Life is too short,
The day I was born was only yesterday, and yesterday was the day I started working here, it’s also yesterday the day I met the many loving and wonderful people, whom I lost yesterday. All my memories happened yesterday and tomorrow I will die. And tomorrow someone else will stand here eulogising me, and tomorrow as today becomes yesterday, I will become a memory.

Today, we are here to celebrate the memory of those whom we lost yesterday, the beautiful loving memory of our friends, colleagues and loved ones. Some we knew for long, some we hardly knew, but all shared with us this place and formed the memory of it.

Memories, funny things they are; charm us with their beauty, sweetness and peace. They play magic tricks on our minds, as we only enjoy them, no matter how bitter, hard and miserable the moments were, we still enjoy the memory of it.

The tears we weep will not be forever,
The laughs we have will not be forever,
But the memories of them will last forever.

Maybe tomorrow is going to be better than today, maybe there are better things ahead, but we cannot and shall not forget what we have left behind. Forever we will cherish these memories, because every little moment we spend with people we love, changes our lives forever. George Elliot wrote: “our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them”.

Life is unbelievably a long journey,

Every day is a new challenge, new adventure, new joy and new pain; never before, and never again. We make so many stops, short and long, and we leave our marks on places and people everywhere. It may feel short, but when you look back and remember the people you have come across, the people whose lives you’ve touched, you changed forever the people that touched your life and changed it forever, you realise how long the journey has been, how beautiful and how worthwhile it was.

“It is in dying that one is raised to eternal life” St Francis prayer says, and I add that in living in the moment, small or big, we make our life eternal.

 

Ahmad Baker

 

*paraphrasing Palestinian poet  Mahmud Darwish’s poem of the same title (on this earth what makes life worth living)