First part of a narrative article

From the perspective of a child in a refugee camp in Lebanon

With an empty gaze, sitting on a pillow which is supposed to be a bed mattress, the nine year-old Rima recalls her days in Homs when everything used to be normal: “I miss playing with my friends. After school, we used to play a lot of football. We always lost track of time and played the whole afternoon until our mothers came to pick us up. But now, I cannot find any joy in playing football, especially in this place where everybody is drawn into a life of hopelessness and fear. I really miss my friends, and I miss having fun. I want to leave Lebanon.” In the small tent which serves Rima and her family as their temporary abode, you could literally feel the sadness. The place was too small for five people to live in. The smell of the food leftovers pervaded the room. Cooking pots, dishes and waste products were scattered everywhere and worst of all, the suffocating heat was unbearable.

Rima and her family are not the only people who have to live under such conditions. There are one million refugees registered in the Arsal refugee camp in Lebanon. They were forced to leave their country due to the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. Until the situation in Syria does not settle down, people will, unfortunately, have to suffer.

PSA - After-death-avatar

The death of a beloved person is always a tragic story. And there is nothing we can do about death being the natural ending of our lives. Some people can’t handle the loss and tend to be devastated for ages. Thoughts like “Why haven’t I expressed my love to this person more often?” or “If only I could spend another day with him/her” make the grief process last longer. So what if we actually could speak and get in contact with an already dead person? You think it is too unrealistic and totally impossible? No is the answer! There are websites which basically collect every information you have ever uploaded on the internet to create an after-life-avatar of you. To put it simply, you become virtually immortal. You can theoretically call and send messages to a deceased person whenever you want. 

This information is surely arising some scepticism, and it should. How can some algorithms ever create an authentic copy of a complex, genius and beautiful creature such as the human being? An avatar, a very weak representation of what you once was, would distract the people from their pain only for a short period of time. Reopening all wounds impede the process of grieving and therefore we should all accept death as soons as possible. Don’t ever forget, the soul of a person never dies.