We should all search for the heroes inside ourselves

After visiting Comic Con, Rym Ghazal reflects on meeting real-life heroes such as police and firefighters

Alistair Vowles as Blood Angel entertains the crowd at  Middle East Film and Comic Con in Dubai. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National
Powered by automated translation

The sheets looked ripped, worn out, discoloured, with faded floral prints. But it mattered not, for today, these sheets were special; they were magical flying capes.

Running like mad, a group of Syrian refugee children decided to be supermen for the day, and were trying out their capes, by trying to fly and jump off objects along the way.

In a neighbourhood in Tripoli, where they were staying with friends and extended relatives in crammed rooms, these kids burst out with a new lease on life after watching a pirated Superman cartoon on a borrowed DVD player. It was like they had discovered a great secret.

This group of children were laughing and bringing smiles to the faces of everyone who saw them run from one spot to the other trying to fly. They jumped off chairs and tables, leapt over an adult or two, and kept looking for that magic spot where they could fly. Adults called them “majaneen” (crazed ones), but it was followed by laughter. Other children joined them, including some Lebanese, and ran with them aimlessly.

For a few minutes, the fictional American superhero gave these children hope. It didn’t matter that they couldn’t find a red flying cloak, and they probably didn’t understand half of what they heard in the cartoon, as they were not fluent in English, but they had found a hero for a moment.

And God knows they needed one, after the horrific things they saw and experienced back in Syria before they found themselves as refugees. Life as a refugee is a struggle each day, from the lack of basic needs to being in a place openly resentful of your presence. A few of the children told me how they would be kicked and pushed; one had coffee splashed on him when he was trying to sell tissue boxes and gum along the streets. With the number of refugees in Lebanon now over a million, things are not going to get any better for anyone living there.

Whatever the case, every child deserves a hero. Or at least, the dream or illusion of a superhero out there somewhere.

It is not just the children that love heroes. Last weekend’s Middle East Film and Comic Con saw thousands of adults dressed up as comic-book heroes, Japanese anime and manga characters, and sci-fi characters like Star Wars’ Darth Vader. For a few days, they put aside their serious selves and were silly and childlike.

If you were an Arab child living in the UAE in the 1980s and 1990s, you fell in love with the same Japanese animation as everyone else across the Middle East. Dubbed into Arabic, Japanese cartoon heroes ruled over the TV screens as well as on videocassette. One of the most popular was Captain Majed (Tsubasa), a heroic footballer. Every boy’s dream was to be able to shoot like this footballer, and to this day, if someone is a good player, people say: “You are like Captain Majed.”

Then there are all-time favourites like Grendizer, a 1970s super robot who defended Earth against aliens and still has a cult-like following.

But then you meet real life heroes, who are less glamorous and don’t necessarily wear special, flashy clothes. They are people like doctors, teachers, humanitarians, animal activists and, well, mothers. To me, my mother is a hero. Besides battling cancer, she has battled stereotypes, sexism, racism and different kinds of oppression. She has done it with style and for the sake of her children.

The sacrifices made by both parents is too often taken for granted.

Then you meet heroes in uniform, like firefighters and police officers. Last week, I met a group of Emirati women who hope to become firefighters, and I saw their determination and their selflessness in trying to help others. They want to save lives and make a difference, and are ready to do whatever it takes to do that. It is not every day you meet people volunteering to become a hero. Usually, we wait for one to appear in our lives and save us.

So, for a change, try to be a hero in someone’s life – because, at some point, everybody needs one.

rghazal@thenational.ae

On Twitter: @Arabianmau