Remembering Heritage in Need


Upper Nile Canal, Egypt
All heritage protection projects resonate with the theme of 'helping'. However, there are many circumstances where the heritage is in immediate danger. As our modern world faces civil wars, irreconcilable political conflicts, an ever-growing gap between rich and poor, and extreme climate change, both tangible and intangible heritage elements are threatened. As heritage protectors, it is our duty to offer aid to the sites and people whose livelihood and safety are at stake. Though the general world of heritage conservation is thrilling and exciting, sometimes we are throttled with the reality of a changing world often neglecting the most significant historic relics and the people who call such places home. Heritage is rock, stone, water, mountains, but most importantly, heritage is people. 

The following song by Stephen Foster, written in 1854, beautifully depicts the duty of helping those in need.



Hard Times Come Again No More

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh hard times come again no more.

Chorus:
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus

There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus

Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus

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