The celebration is one of the best poems of war that the world will ever come across. This video poem was written as a result of the Syrian war by Ghayath Almadhoun, and Marie Silkeberg. Ghayath is a Palestinian poet who was born in the year 1979 in Syria and in the year 2008, he migrated to Sweden, where he met Silkeberg (ALMADHOUN and SILKEBERG). This innovative video poem gives the viewer the details about the destruction of Damascus. The damages to the city are acts to be condemned since they were not in any way appropriate. Ghayath Almadhoun has been reflected as a voice of the poets that emerged after the Arab Springs. Marie Silkeberg, on the other hand, is a Swedish origin who is a poet-filmmaker and also a non-fictional writer. These two come together to give voices on the events of war and they focus on the Syrian war. This essay is focused on showing the importance of relating the past to the present as well as showing how Ghayath has related the past to the present. “I was exploring the difference between war and revolution” (ALMADHOUN and SILKEBERG)
The video starts by giving details on the Berlin War, The Germans and many other people had never really seen what happened to their city. The closest they ever came was through short videos of not more than ten seconds aired by the national geographic channel and the B.B.C. The authors are courageous enough to go ahead and display more than what was aired by the broadcasting networks without mentioning where they got those videos from. He then goes ahead to compare the war that took place in Berlin, Hiroshima, and Syria; he continues to say that all this comes to his mind when a bullet passes through his body (ALMADHOUN and SILKEBERG)
In one of the interviews, Ghayath is quoted saying that “destruction is destruction no matter what” (ALMADHOUN and SILKEBERG). He goes ahead to state that the damage in Damascus is more than what the people of Berlin had experienced. Throughout the poet video movie a person could tell that in Berlin only the roofs of houses were damaged but in Damascus houses were down, most of them destroyed or burned to the ground. Though Damascus was not right, the city did not really deserve what it experienced.
“The city is bigger than the poet’s heart, but smaller than this poem,” (ALMADHOUN and SILKEBERG). This is a disturbing fact, and it reconnects the past to the present. What happened was not any different with what happens in the present world. This is because a lot of the events have been linked together. They include the war between human beings which can be related to the present world where people hate each other. This hatred that people feel towards one another is what leads to the destruction of lives and the city that they live in. The experience is never something to be proud of as in both innocent wars, women and children suffer for some reasons that they could never understand. All is clear that in both scenes, bodies are all over town with tears on the faces of those who are left behind. He again clearly states that the effect of war is not felt by those who leave others behind, but by those who are left behind. This is so as most of the people, who survive the war, are never the same, faced with psychological trauma, memories that they can never do away with, family loss, losing friends and also the loss of properties in the form of houses and jobs.
In both cases, people lived a normal life where they had families around them, jobs, and houses which had no scars of war but were filled with only beautiful smiles. To them, war was something they would watch from a distance, war to them was when a person collided with friends or family due to things like change and assimilation of new cultures. Damascus was no different from Berlin the people there had no ties anywhere near them before the war.
They say love your neighbor, but in this case of Damascus and Berlin, it was different from the Germans in their war as they were betrayed by their best allies which were in Italy. In the case of Syria, they never expected the borders of the other neighboring countries to close their borders on them when they were running from war. This is clearly stated in the poem when he says that "and about cities that receive tourist in peace time and mujahedin in war time” (ALMADHOUN and SILKEBERG). This statement is important as it also signifies the irony of life, in the two wars, countries never welcomed those who were running from war by closing their borders, but the mujahidin’s and terrorists would find their way into the country while the borders were still closed.
In both wars, no one forgets the experiences and the memories as well do not die. In any case they haunt the lives of those who live as people experience psychological traumas. Some may live to tell, but some never want to relive the experiences. This is even clearer when Ghayath says “that those who suffer most after the war are those who are left behind” (ALMADHOUN and SILKEBERG). This expresses that there is a lot of suffering and those who experience it most are those who survive war.
The citizens of Syria, especially those in Damascus and Berlin turn out to be animals. The film talks of people who are used to civilization, and whom, when it was time to dine it was merry, but war turns their life into survival mode whereby teeth and nails are considered to be weapons. During the war, no one had the time to set a table for dinner since it was never known when the next attack was going to happen. A person was therefore supposed to be alert and always on their toes, ensuring that they maximized on everything. It never gives anyone a chance to think about the other person other than themselves. “I remember how I used to sweat adrenaline,” (ALMADHOUN and SILKEBERG)
During the war, everything falls starting with the culture since those who manage to escape fall into different cultures, and hence they start by learning the language used by the people they live with, their way of life and so forth. Through war, dreams of the people and countries are brought to an end and most end up in prison, the city ends up being empty, and the only place that one can find to be full is the cemetery and it so happens that this is the case in both wars. “The city turned to cemetery” (ALMADHOUN and SILKEBERG)
There are two faces in both wars if one is a victim, it's either they are trying to survive through sucking the blood of their neighbor or else trying to take advantage of those that are weaker in the surroundings. The other face is when an individual is on the enemy’s side. This, however, we can only imagine what one goes through as a captive and the most probable reason why that person is alive is that he has something that the enemies want. How the enemies get the information that they want, will be through torture, which is by use of electric cables, knives to pierce the body or even cut down the fingers. It is usually done in the most painful of ways.
In conclusion, Ghayath ends the film in a sober mood as he states that weapons should be thrown away and only then should people begin the celebrations. What is not clear is do we celebrate because we have peace again or the victory, since after war there is a lot to do because of the destruction and psychological traumas to overcome.
Works Cited
ALMADHOUN, GHAYATH and MARIE SILKEBERG. THE CELEBRATION BY GHAYATH ALMADHOUN AND MARIE SILKEBERG. n.d. Web. 5 May 2016. <"The Celebration by Ghayath Almadhoun and Marie Silkeberg". Moving Poems, 2015. Online. Internet. 5 May 2016. . Available: http://movingpoems.com/2014/06/the-celebration-by-ghayath-almadhoun/.>.
