Two Voices, One Humanity

Written By: Ro Anamul Hasan and Tom Arcaro

Thoughts and feelings through chatting between a Rohingya refugee humanitarian in Cox’s Bazar and a humanitarian sociologist living in North Carolina, USA

An idea

Tom:
Do you think it will be good for us to write together?
I want to
Blend our two voices together
And shout to the world that ours is a shared world, a shared humanity. I think a poem of hope, connection, and common humanity
could be a gift to the world just now.

Ro Anamul Hasan:
Yes. It’s good.
I should say this.
It’s a great chance for me to be with you.

Tom:
You are a refugee humanitarian and I am an academic humanitarian. We are both on the margins of the humanitarian world.
But we share a common goal: dignity, justice, and freedom for all.
All lives deserve equal chance. Hate and violence are wrong, and our voices can rise above the killing.

Ro Anamul Hasan:
Yes. Mind blowing idea.
An idea! Please tell me how should I write on “our humanity”. Then I can write at home easily then can drop here.
When you told me to write about humanity, Nothing to express how I felt happy because Lack of humanity, we are suffering here daily.
Thank you for understanding me always.

Struggles

Tom:
You said you were in danger?

Ro Anamul Hasan:
I’m using wifi by stealing.

Tom:
As you have time to respond. No rush. Please be safe!

Ro Anamul Hasan:
I’m really sorry for delay.
Actually my phone was stolen.
Now I am on old phone of my brother.
How can I make you understand the difficulties we are swallowing in camp?When you asked me to write about humanity I have nothing happy to express because of the lack of humanity,
We are suffering daily.

Tom:
Good to see you online. Can we work on our poem?

Ro Anamul Hasan:
But I can’t be online a long time.
How can I make you understand how difficulties are Swallowing silently in camp?

Honest answers

Tom::
We are separated by oceans, time zones, language, and culture But I feel connected to you, and you to me,
United in our humanity.
But why, and how? What does this mean?

Ro Anamul Hasan:
To answer your questions, let me feel free.

You ask, ‘What am I to you?’
My answer:
You are a Maker
gifted person who understands my feelings and my sufferings
And you can read my mind even once we didn’t meet each other being far from me.
You ask, ‘What is our relationship?’
My answer:
In reality, we are so different from each other like the sky and the earth.
I’m a genocide survivor who lives under the tarpaulined shelter and ending my life without hopes.
This refugee life makes me feel every breath is the last one. I’m not seen as a human being.
Every second, I yearn to go back to my land. My heart is filled with traumas and stresses.
Summarily, I am so different from you. But you are the one who has freedom, a nation and a home to live.
More, you have everything, you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want.
How different you are from me!
But you never differentiate. You are the one who keeps valuing me as a human. So for me this relationship is a humanitarian relationship.

COVID-19: A shared mortal fear

Tom:
You and I share a fear of COVID-19. It is here in my community now.
The US has over 1 million cases and my small community has nearly 100 who Have tested positive for the virus.

Ro Anamul Hasan:
We Rohingya survive fearfully of COVID-19
We are unable to maintain social distances in this Overcrowded refugee camp.
Every citizen depends on their government. For us, no government is dependable

Even our own government refuses to accept us as a nationality.
We are staring at the international community for help.
We don’t want to die by COVID-19 before we are repatriated.
If COVID-19 infects a refugee in this mega camp we may die
with the fastest rate in the world.

Tom:
I fear for you and the Rohingya and refugees and IDPs All over the world, uncertain of their fate, lacking control.
But I do know this:
We share one planet, one fate.
Leaders everywhere must see this truth,
Joining you and me shouting with all our voices that we are One humanity.

Ro Anamul Hasan:
In this panic situation,
Not one of my foreign friends ask about our refugee life on how we are facing the fear of COVID-19 in the camps
Except you.
That’s why I am sharing all my suffering and feeling for spreading disease. We shout and report to so many agencies but our voices are out of their ears.
So I’m connected to share what we yearn.
Perhaps, our voices can reach out to the international community.

Tom:
Yes. I hope out words reach many ears

Ro Anamul Hasan:
Hopefully…
I believe that.

(02-05-2020)
The Art Garden Rohingya
Voice Of Humanity