First: I’m so pleased to hear that today, as I type, Dorje Gurung is flying out of Doha to Kathmandu.
This image says so much. I can’t imagine what he is going through, and has been through. I can’t imagine what his friends and colleagues have been through.
… which leads me to this other thing.
I can’t imagine.
I mean, I can.
But… I can’t know.
This is important.
I’ve been seeing some rather judgmental and presumptuous things being said about Qatar Academy (QA) and Qatar Foundation. I’ve been seeing these on the Facebook group, as comments on status updates the lovely group organizers are posting. And I’ve also seen them as nah-hah-asty comments on the International Schools Review blog, which I won’t even grant with a link because I think it’s where humanity goes to lose its soul.
I said in my last post that I suspected QA did all it could. I suspect this because I know educators there — great, caring, and compassionate educators — who would really struggle knowing that QA did not do all it could. Some of those educators hold stand-up positions and it would be beyond their conscience to do anything less. Yes, I could be wrong. It could be, in fact, that QA was horrible to Dorje and treated him like crap, offered him nothing and kicked him out the door with nary a word. And I’ll be very ready to come back here and say, “ehhh, I was wrong.” But here’s the thing:
- I prefer to operate from a benefit model, rather than a deficit, and
- it’s not my story!
Okay, that’s two things, but you get my point. WE DON’T KNOW what went on behind the scenes. WE MIGHT NEVER KNOW. And we have to be okay with that.
Because it’s not our story.
It’s Dorje’s story.
(And the story of the other people involved directly with his story. But it’s definitely not our story.)
It’s someone else’s story.
We don’t get to decide what to do with that story. HE does! Or they do. I know — I get overzealous about sharing information and stories too; we all do. I nearly told the world about my nephew’s birth before his parents did — I could hardly contain myself, I was so excited. (Thanks to my mum for the reminder!) But when it comes to life-changing events — whether it’s Dorje’s imprisonment or my nephew’s birth — it’s important to let the people involved tell the story.
Because well… we’re not in it. We were on the side, cheering, praying, writing, talking, hoping. We are part of the epilogue, the acknowledgments on the last page before the author profile. But we don’t know what happened, really.
And that is okay.
Not knowing is okay. Not knowing does not grant us unequivocal permission to assume we know what QA or QF did for this man. Not knowing does not permit us to make up stories.
Further: All this bad-mouthing of QA and QF does nothing to help Dorje, and that’s ummmm… kindasortaREALLY what this whole thing was about in the first place.
The condemnation of Qatar’s government and justice system, however, is another topic up for debate. I strongly suspect those two bits had far more to do with Dorje’s dismissal and imprisonment than his employer. But I’m not really ready to open that can o’ worms.
And again… it’s not my story.
