1 week Ago
It took the education ministry a couple of days to speak about the photo of a group of secondary-school pupils in the Famagusta area who gave a Nazi salute during a class photo session. Since there was no immediate rush to denial following publication of the photo, it was safe to conclude the kids were not engaging in some new Gen-Z Tik-Tok challenge to see how long they could hold their right hand out dead straight before they got tired. The photo was brought to light by the hysterical comrades of Akel Famagusta who would no doubt have been proud if the children had instead raised closed fists.
.. because millions of people could not possibly have been killed by communist dictators as well as fascist Nazis.
Akel said the photo was taken with the teacher’s consent despite protests by other colleagues. There had also been a vague suggestion that the salute was instigated by a teacher. All unconfirmed.
Secondary-school teachers’ union Oelmek said on Thursday the incident had been handled by the school “in the appropriate manner” whatever that means. Also, it said “specific facts were distorted or falsified in the handling of the incident” – again, whatever that means. The education ministry was just as wish-washy though it did confirm it was a Nazi salute, “a reckless gesture” by a faction of students.
“Instructions” were of course “immediately given” to avoid such or similar gestures in the future, “which may be misinterpreted”. Misinterpreted as what? If it was a stupid joke say so. Presumably the ministry is trying to assure us that the children do not subscribe to Nazi ideology.
Still, someone instigated it. If it wasn’t a teacher, then it was one of the children in the photograph and they knew what they were doing, joke or not. This is clear by the fact that the girls in the photo and a couple of the boys did not salute, indicating some self-awareness and discomfort.
A few slightly raised their hands as if asking for a bathroom break. Were the instigator or instigators reprimanded, held in detention, warned? We don’t know. What we do know is if one of them raised a Turkish flag in a school photo shoot to tick people off as a joke, they’d be immediately suspended.
Children are exposed to so much on social media including the trend these days to call everyone you don’t like a Nazi irrespective of whether they’ve killed anyone. The term has become overused to the point of reducing millions of deaths to a personal insult. Those being called Nazis are in turn using Nazi gestures to troll back.
Welcome to the 21st century version of political dialogue – Kindergarten 2.0. We’re sure the children in the photo are not nascent Nazis but rather little sheep following the latest trend.
This shows how easily they could be led to bad ideas. What they did smacks of ignorance, a lack of critical thinking and zero empathy. And whose fault is that? If they were ever shown photos from Auschwitz would they still think Nazi salutes are funny?.
