THE WAY THINGS ARE

The original Little House on the Prairie (1974-1983) was based on the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The new Netflix adaptation pays closer attention to the realities of the period.

In 1974, life in Cyprus was shattered by the coup and the invasion. And yet I don’t remember comparing the Ingalls’ experience of settling into Indian (Native American) territory to Cyprus when Turkish settlers moved into Turkish occupied north Cyprus. Unlike in the gloss-over-facts movies I grew up with, settlers moving West disrupted and altered the life of the indigenous peoples.

The Osage tribe features in the new series. Charles, the father, weary after the civil war, despite the anticipation of a new life on the beautiful, fertile prairie, feels guilty knowing they thrive on ancestral land of the Osage, pressured by the American government to move to a reservation while a railway line rapidly aids the influx and expansion of European settlers. Charles and Laura see the lives of the Osage family they befriend irrevocably altered by a superior armed force, enabling helpless acquiescence.

It’s 25 years since the Twin Towers were terrorised. Repeated screenings on TV cannot lessen the impact that action and result had. I know exactly the moment I heard the news, a cousin in New York recalling running from choking dust that enveloped everything, brave first responders running towards danger as others ran away, some losing their lives along with the victims. Falling, or trapped people, some rescued, some dying horribly crushed by collapsing debris or buried alive without hope of rescue.

That one catastrophic image was one brutal event. However, as America pays homage to 9/11, the nation needs to think also of others who die in similar circumstances daily. Buildings being razed, choking dust sucked into children’s lungs, people buried alive under fallen masonry, life changing injuries, fear, first responders killed not by falling debris but, as witnesses protested, deliberately prevented from giving aid.  

These horrendous scenes of carnage are not a one-off, but ubiquitous on our screens, mere pictures, statistics, in Middle East wars whose toll on innocent people ‘free-world’ democratic leaders allow to continue. Focus conveniently shifted to Iran where destruction impacts innocents but the regime stands.

How many blown-up buildings has Lebanon suffered since 9/11? Ukraine fights courageously against a stronger enemy but has the active help of European leaders they deny Gaza, no real move or practical help to halt illegal invasion and settlement there.

The world pays economically, and allies pay physically for the actions of Israel and the USA, yet neither country has seen comparable reciprocal physical damage or loss of life. The Twin Towers were a terror act, as was the sadistic savagery of October 7 in Israel. What is not given honest remembrance focus in Europe or the USA are callous, oppressive, decade-long actions provoking the reactive, Palestinian ‘terror’ Israel brought on itself. Irgun was labelled a ‘terror’ organisation, some members became respectable politicians.

I remember the days of the coup and the invasion here; I know what losing everything or a loved one missing meant to friends. Israel daily enacts what settlers did in America, stealing, settling the land of others, evicting them off it at its leisure, undisturbed.

Donald Trump has high regard for Turkey’s President Erdogan. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, of Turkey’s largest opposition party said that Bulent Ecevit ‘took’ Cyprus. America this year celebrates freedom from the Crown’s possession, but it possesses land stolen from Native Americans. Taking what belongs to others is acceptable, as long as it suits selfish expediency.