For people whose psychological anchor in stressful times is in part the immediacy, the intimate closeness, of the physical country they were born to, and whose guiding stories are inextricably woven into that land, the passage of the train is traumatic. Its very presence signifies their loss of ownership and denial of access to their ancestors’ lands. This is an old story in Australia, in the Americas, on the Tibetan Plateau, and elsewhere. But now, before them in the cars, is the very country itself, being shipped off somewhere. For a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew, it would be as if Jerusalem
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