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WELL-KNOWN PARENTING GURU TO SPEAK ON TOPIC OF GENOCIDE
William Lin
Ottawa Citizen, Canada
Oct 29 2007
Cattle. Vermin. Cockroaches. They were terms used against ethnic
groups that helped fuel 20th-century genocides, from the Holocaust
to the Rwanda massacre, in which hundreds of thousands of ethnic
Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers died. And for Barbara Coloroso, a
parenting and school discipline guru, it's just a short walk from
bullying to genocide. "Once you dehumanize another human being,
then you put them outside your circle of moral concern," said
Ms. Coloroso. "And you can do anything to them and really not feel
the normal shame or compassion that comes when you hurt somebody. If
you go back to the genocide, the majority of the context of the
genocide began with verbal bullying." Ms. Coloroso will discuss her
new book, Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide Nov. 5
at Sir Robert Borden High School as part of Holocaust Education
Week. The week, a program by the Jewish Federation of Ottawa's Shoah
(Holocaust) Committee, began on Sunday and runs until Nov. 11,
featuring programs, films and lectures. The topic of genocide was
a departure for Ms. Coloroso, a former nun who has written several
books on parenting and bullying. She lives in Littleton, Colorado,
near the scene of the Columbine High School shootings. Ms. Coloroso
first discovered the topic after reading Elie Wiesel's Night, a book
based on the author's experience as an Orthodox Jew who was sent to
Auschwitz concentration camp. More recently, Ms. Coloroso saw the
genocide's effects first-hand while working with Rwandan orphans of
the genocide. She met a young man, a Tutsi who witnessed his mother
and two sisters killed in Kigali, Rwanda. His father tried protecting
him, but was killed as well. The boy suffered four machete cuts to
his head. "People's stories are all the same in terms of that whole
cycle of bullying. It was really my involvement in Rwanda that made
it very personal," she said. Her book also focuses on the Armenians
in the Ottoman empire, and the Jews, Roma and Sinti in Europe.
A complete list of Holocaust Education Week events can be found at
www.jewishottawa.org.http://www.canada.com/otta wacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=5ee71989-9f6a-45 d8-ac16-6931eed2de7e&k=47425
William Lin
Ottawa Citizen, Canada
Oct 29 2007
Cattle. Vermin. Cockroaches. They were terms used against ethnic
groups that helped fuel 20th-century genocides, from the Holocaust
to the Rwanda massacre, in which hundreds of thousands of ethnic
Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers died. And for Barbara Coloroso, a
parenting and school discipline guru, it's just a short walk from
bullying to genocide. "Once you dehumanize another human being,
then you put them outside your circle of moral concern," said
Ms. Coloroso. "And you can do anything to them and really not feel
the normal shame or compassion that comes when you hurt somebody. If
you go back to the genocide, the majority of the context of the
genocide began with verbal bullying." Ms. Coloroso will discuss her
new book, Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide Nov. 5
at Sir Robert Borden High School as part of Holocaust Education
Week. The week, a program by the Jewish Federation of Ottawa's Shoah
(Holocaust) Committee, began on Sunday and runs until Nov. 11,
featuring programs, films and lectures. The topic of genocide was
a departure for Ms. Coloroso, a former nun who has written several
books on parenting and bullying. She lives in Littleton, Colorado,
near the scene of the Columbine High School shootings. Ms. Coloroso
first discovered the topic after reading Elie Wiesel's Night, a book
based on the author's experience as an Orthodox Jew who was sent to
Auschwitz concentration camp. More recently, Ms. Coloroso saw the
genocide's effects first-hand while working with Rwandan orphans of
the genocide. She met a young man, a Tutsi who witnessed his mother
and two sisters killed in Kigali, Rwanda. His father tried protecting
him, but was killed as well. The boy suffered four machete cuts to
his head. "People's stories are all the same in terms of that whole
cycle of bullying. It was really my involvement in Rwanda that made
it very personal," she said. Her book also focuses on the Armenians
in the Ottoman empire, and the Jews, Roma and Sinti in Europe.
A complete list of Holocaust Education Week events can be found at
www.jewishottawa.org.http://www.canada.com/otta wacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=5ee71989-9f6a-45 d8-ac16-6931eed2de7e&k=47425