Unlikely Heroes Karma Kindness

NY Diary (20-13): Unlikely Heroes, Karma, United We Stand
山和山不相遇，人和人要相逢

Before I get to today's subject, let me digress a little; if you don't like what you are reading, skip to the next heading.

In these difficult times, some of our leaders and spokespersons, like NY Governor Andrew Cuomo and Dr. Anthony Fauci, offer considered opinions and are reassuring. However, the arrogant and reckless behavior of many other Elected Officials, be it on the National or State level, are simply unpalatable, to put it mildly. Even during peaceful times, to save lives is the top priority of any self-respecting nation. How can it be otherwise, during the World's Greatest Crisis? This is a Moral Obligation. Nothing else matters more.

Some of these figures, when they want to court particular religious sectors, invoke God. Yet their doings and meanness fly in the face of Biblical Teachings, which I know well, having attended Catholic Schools for 11 years. The Bible teaches us to find the bad within ourselves, to examine and rectify our own mistakes, to be kind - not to blame others for everything.

Unlikely Heroes
Yet humans are complex beings. The internet age has actually polarized things even more. Things are not so black and white in real life. Even supposedly bad people can perform acts of kindness. That is the story I want to tell you today, and it is one that spanned 85 years.

Thanks to the movie Schindler's List, everybody knows Oskar Schindler, the German who saved many Jews. Today's story is about another German of the same time period, John Rabe, who the Chinese regard as the Schindler of China (wikipedia). Briefly, John Rabe was a German attache who went to China long before the War. Interestingly, he was representative of Siemens, and must have first hand knowledge of a lot of good tubes! He became a Nazi Party Member and Official in China but when the Japanese entered Nanking (now Nanjing) used his Axis Power to protect up to 25,000 Chinese from the Rape of Nanking.

Just like Schindler, Rabe dissipated his wealth helping those he protected and after the war did very poorly and was forgotten, but not by the people he saved. In fact, in their sunset years, both heroes were basically sustained by the people they had saved.

Rabe's son grew up in China and was 14 when the family went back to Germany. He later became a physician. The grandson Thomas Rabe is also a physician and has continued to maintain Chinese ties. He also established the John Rabe Communication Center to examine history and promote peace, and only just last year opened its Chinese branch (interesting report).

The Hospital Thomas Rabe works in now is in one of Germany's hot spots in this pandemic. Due to shortage of drugs he appealed to the Chinese ambassador, and eventually received medicine for Germany. This is not propaganda, but reciprocation.

It is also an illustration of Karma. Hindus and Buddhists believe that if you do good, it will benefit the next lives, including your descendants.


In case you wonder what those Chinese characters mean, it is the translation of a German proverb, which means something like, Mountains don't Meet but People do, or Behind Every Mountain there are People. We are not isolated. United we Stand.

Basic Repertoire
These are, strictly speaking, not basic repertoire, nor purely classical music, but they are appropriate for the subject. First is Track 13 from Schindler's List, Remembrances, the violinist being Itzahk Perlman (this track is quite popular with HK audiophiles). Next is Track 4 of John William's score, purely orchestral, of the same Track Name.




Next and last, a grittier track, from minimalist composer Steve Reich's Different Trains. This is the second of three movements, named Europe, During the War. It interposes taped sounds of trains etc with the Kronos String Quartet and voices of Holocaust survivors (see wiki). It really is a crossover kind of thing, and one can imagine Radiohead, or even Pink Floyd, doing similar things (though less heavy in subject).