светлина - The Anglo-American School of Sofia

Sands
Alexander Kamberov
Essay
Smoke
Samuil Sarandev
Photograph
Everything is yellow. Dusty yellow. The dunes are up, withstanding
the occasional gusts of wind generated by the otherwise
serene waters of the Persian Gulf. The heat is unendurable and
only once in a while a stranger covered in fabric dares meet the
rays of the blazing sun. Occasionally, a funnel of dust and sand attempts
to leave the surface but seconds later finds itself grounded
by the torridity. How ironic!
The sand particles are so many, many more than we humans
are, but probably much fewer than the misconceptions and
prejudices held against the people treading the desert sands of
the Middle East. Some of them are indeed veiled, but their cover
is not a symbol of some dangerous faith or hostility; nowadays it
symbolizes choice, sometimes even necessity for protection. Just
as the dunes go up when the sands mount, so does the dissonance
intensify when the bias takes its toll on human rationality. Astonishingly,
they are still too tranquil and composed to rise up against
the most vocal bigots who vituperate them with ungrounded “arguments”
based on hysterical preconceptions and convenient, beguiling
generalizations about the links between faith and terrorism.
This attitude is unendurable, yet they know how to endure
the blazing comments, just as life has taught them how to endure
the rays of the blazing sun. A sober voice of awakening human
conscience dares challenge the stereotypes about them every so
often. However, just like the funnel of dust and sand, this wake-up
call enjoys the longevity of ephemera – the torridity grounds the
funnel and the masses stifle the Voice. Not always, however, and
luckily.
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