Today is the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster. My son didn’t know anything about it so we watched the episode of The Crown on @netflix season 3 to help him understand. This scene particularly moved me. Even though it was an appalling man made tragedy, Prince Phillip explains what he saw when visiting: the families of the victims sang, and sang beautifully, when burying their children. Which reminded me of when so many families of the massacred Iranians did something similar this January: when burying their children they played music and danced. Two things you are not allowed to do in public under this regime. Despite the anger and the rage, despite the feeling of utter betrayal, they both collectively chose constructive resilience. So instead of fighting back with hostility or giving up, they focused on upholding core values and finding hope and humanity where there is none, with a fundamental message to those responsible that ‘you can kill us, but you will never break us.’ People make a country, and it’s the realisation of the sheer humanity of these moments in people’s fight for justice and dignity that are the defining moments in the history of a country.