Solutions to the Trauma of Facing
Deportation
For many years,
Sweden had tried to deal with the sleeping phase of the children who have the trauma of facing deportation. In this paper, we will see how both Gladwell and
Stille could give solutions to the problem that Sweden faces. Gladwell’s idea
of fixing the problem by cracking down every little thing in New York train
station and Stille’s idea of cleaning up the Ganges River but still embracing
the local cultural value of the river could be served as a solution to the
apathetic children in Sweden who are facing the trauma of deportation. On the
surface, both solutions might look at the opposites of each other, but as we look
closer, we may find that both want to awaken the sleeping phase by valuing
every little detail in the environment.
Before
we look at the solutions, it is wise to look deeper into the problem first. The
main problem that Sweden had been trying to fix for years is the sleeping phase
that the apathetic children in Sweden face in reaction to the traumas of their
family being deported.
“For
nearly two decades, a political question—What should we do about migration?
—has played out through the bodies of hundreds of children. The number of new
cases of apathy declined in 2006 after the Migration Board took a more lenient
approach, but the illness is still being diagnosed in dozens of children. Last
year, some sixty children lost the ability to move and to speak” (Aviv).
The
Swedish government had tried to erase the illness by treating the apathetic
children through extensive hospital care, but they always saw the big picture
and did not look at the details of the environment that the children had lived
before. Children who underwent the illness were “so totally exhausted, both
physically and emotionally, that they had given the environment total power
over them” (Aviv). Apathetic children let themselves be consumed of their
deportation problem that they let the environment consume them by making them
asleep. The children didn’t have the power to do anything, and they don’t value
their lives anymore. Hence, the solution lies in the little details in the
environment and not just looking at the problem itself. After understanding the
problem, we now could move forward to the solutions.
The
first solution is Malcolm Gladwell’s idea of fixing the problem by cracking
down every little thing in the environment. “David Gunn aimed at cleaning the
system line by line, train by train. The graffiti was painted over as many
times as needed” (Gladwell 143). Every little thing that does not seem significant
was cleaned by David Gunn in New York. The idea of repairing the “dark and
chaotic” (Gladwell 136) New York was simple yet effective. This method could be
applied to the Swedish problem. If the Swedish government could look at the
small details that affected the children instead of seeing just the obvious
problems that the children faced, then this might be an “awakening” solution
for the sleeping children. One example that the Swedish government simply could
do is already mentioned in the text: “a way to be a person, to experience
oneself, to live in society” (Aviv). Maybe the problem is not just about the
main topic of deportation. Instead, it is the small things that the children
felt during their time in the society that made them become traumatic of their
surroundings. “Humans work based on how they are able to control their
environment, situation, and life. Therefore, people's character "is not
what we think is it, or, rather, what we want it to be" (Gladwell 163). If
the children were not able to control the place where they lived in or the
environment, then that should be the simple thing that the Swedish government
should deal with first. Consequently, the solution to the problem is by
treating every little thing in the environment of the apathetic children first,
before the government could move on in dealing the big problem of deportation.
The
second solution to the apathetic children’s problem is Alexander Stille’s
method of embracing the details of cultural value of the Ganges River instead
of just looking at the economic value and the modernization of the river.
Ganges River is famous for “its divine origin, is pure and purifies all those
faithful who immerse themselves in them” (Stille 598). The river is not just a
mere river, it is believed to be holy and pure. People would come all over the
world just to purify themselves from the sins of the world. However, from a
scientific perspective, the act of purifying through cleansing themselves in
the river is instead an act of making themselves dirty from all the illnesses
that are in the river. “In some places at Varanasi, the fecal- coliform count
has been known to reach a hundred and seventy million bacteria per hundred
milliliters of water” (Stille 599). Considering the totally different
perspectives that both sides have, people in India worked together to provide a
solution for the Ganges River. One example would be the Oswald pond system
where it combined “modern science with traditional Hindu ideas, relying mainly
on the self-cleansing properties of nature” (Stille 610). People in India
accepted modern science, but they still embrace their traditional belief. Those
small details are the important things that the Indian wants. With the same
concept in mind, this concept could be applied to apathetic children. The
Swedish doctors should look not only to “solving a dilemma that is not medical
but social and structural” (Aviv). The government and doctors should embrace
the social and structural culture details that the children have lived their
whole lives in Sweden. For that reason, the solution to the problem is by
seeing the details of the problem by embracing the cultural tradition of the
children to awaken the sleeping illness within them.
The problem of the apathetic children in Sweden are not just trivial problems, but
they also reflect the lives of people nowadays who are also “exhausted, both
physically and emotionally, that they had given the environment total power
over them” (Aviv). Throughout this paper, there lies two solutions: Gladwell’s
idea of fixing the problem by cracking down every detail and Stille’s idea of
fixing the problem by considering the small details of the cultural value and
not just the economic value. Both solutions agree with the same thing: the
solutions want us to value the small details in the environment. Instead of
focusing on just the problem itself, the solutions want people to examine every
detail and embrace the cultural background that had existed. Therefore, by
awaking the value of every detail in the environment we can find the
solution to the problem of deported children falling into sleep.
Works Cited
Aviv,
Rachel. “The Trauma of Facing
Deportation.” New Yorker, 3 April.
2017. Web. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/03/the-trauma-of-facing-deportation.
Accessed 24 November 2018.
Gladwell, Malcolm. “The
Tipping Point.” Little, Brown and
Company. 2000. Print.
Stille, Alexander. “The
Ganges’ Next Life.” New Yorker. January
19, 1998. Print.
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