I am extremely grateful for having attended Arn Chorn Pond’s event, and I really appreciate Arn’s bravery and willingness to share his most vulnerable experiences with us. I have been very much looking forward to hearing him talk, as Never Fall Down is one of my favorite books. Even though I already knew Arn’s story, hearing him explain his past traumas in person added another layer of raw emotion that just could not be conveyed through words on a page. I distinctly remember how Arn explained to us how he felt powerless while he watched his siblings starve to death, unable to do to save them. This experience, among several other traumas, led Arn to force himself to become numb to the suffering; Arn always felt like crying, but he knew he couldn’t cry or else the Khmer Rouge would kill him. Arn’s story in recovering from genocide directly connects with some of the major concepts within ubuntu, particularly the gift of giving and the idea of paying it forward. In an attempt to cope with the trauma of the Khmer Rouge killing camps and his time as a child soldier, he has learned to open his heart through music. His flute serves as a metaphor for his weapon to overcome his past wounds. Arn hopes to spread music as a means of healing to others around the world, and he dreams that every child in the world will pick up an instrument instead of a gun. Today, he pays forward his passion in music to the Cambodian community through Cambodia Living Arts, an organization promoting recovery through the arts. Through CLA, Arn works to revive Cambodian traditional arts by passing on artistic and musical skills and by supporting young artists through his scholarship program. Additionally, he brings free musical performances to remote villages across the country via his Khmer Magic Music Bus. In an interview by The Diplomat, Arn said, “Till today, we fail to notice that the image of Cambodia is so much more than just the Killing Fields. The CLA was one small effort to rework this image of Cambodia – to instead, give something to people that they can remember; to better ourselves as a community.” Currently, he is living out his dream, as CLA is producing "Where Elephants Weep," an opera loosely inspired by Arn’s life and the first known contemporary Cambodian opera. As a genocide survivor, Arn has made something beautiful out of nothing, and his road to recovery through arts is truly inspiring. Similar to Arn, Lina Attar, the CEO and founder of Karam Foundation, promotes recovery through the arts among refugee children amidst the Syrian Civil War. Attar has given a workshop called Mapping Memory to Syrian children in various refugee camps. Within the workshop, she guides the students through the process of drawing the floor plans of their homes. She concludes each session by telling the children, “You will return; we all will. But Syria will need you to rebuild then and you cannot rebuild without an education, without staying in school. Maybe you will become architects and rebuild your homes, villages, and towns again.” Through this workshop, Attar has been able to give hope to several Syrian refugee children and make them believe in a brighter future for themselves. In Attar’s Ted-Talk, she tells the audience about Omar, a student at one of her workshops. Through her encouragement, Omar went from being unable to imagine a future for himself beyond the age of 18 to imagining a concrete future with a family, a job, and a home. Both Lina’s and Arn’s stories of recovery through the arts provide hope for a brighter future for our world. Something Arn said that will stick with me is that he has optimism for peace if we as humans can learn to cry for each other. During an NPR interview with Patricia McCormick, Arn said that after his time as a laborer in the Khmer Rouge camps and a child soldier, he has learned to cry; he believes that being able to cry has been very helpful in overcoming his past traumas and becoming more in touch with his emotions. Furthermore, the ability to cry has made Arn feel alive again. In a New York Times article, he said, "I am nobody before"; now, he said, "I am human." Through Arn’s story, I was able to see how crying is not a sign of weakness, but rather the epitome of human empathy. Near the conclusion of the event, Arn left us with a very powerful and thought-provoking message: people make fun of dreamers, but without dreamers, where would the world be? Overall, I am beyond appreciative towards Arn Chorn Pond for speaking with us, and the lessons he taught us will stay with me for years to come. Here are the sources I used if you would like to learn more about Arn's and Attar's stories:
- Interview with Patty McCormick and Arn Chorn Pond - 'Where Elephants Weep': A Cambodian opera for modern times - If Cambodia Can Learn to Sing Again - His Story Never Died - Cambodian Living Arts - Home in the Time of Displacement | Lina Sergie Attar | TEDxUNC - Syrian Children Draw What Used to be Home - Karam Foundation
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