My Blog

dispatches featured another brilliant reporting today, on war-torn somalia. the street fightings do not differentiate civilians from fighters, children from abled-bodied men, women sneaking out to buy cooking oils from armed militias. it is such a mess. it is so very sad.

i don’t bother to find out the cause of the conflict. i don’t even bother to try. because injustice and indiscriminate killings do not and will never, have a justifiable cause.

the men are fighting in the street of mogadishu. some are trying to make a living. the women and kids are left desolate in makeshift tents, made of twigs and canvas, in the outskirt of the city. their lives depend on international aids, which are not always forthcoming.  there is only one clinic for the whole population. the clinic only function is to force feed the malnourished kids.

These women and their kids, sit around under the heat of somalian sun, waiting for aids and their turn at the ‘clinic’. they all wear full hijab.

the top commanders in the governement who are claimed to be behind these fightings have names ranging from, abdullah, ahmad, yousuf and such. and the allegations associated to their names are wide-ranging; from cold-blooded murder, imprisonment and torture for ransom to blocking international aids. yet they blatantly tell the journalist that all these claims are baseless. then they jet off to their homes in the uk, saying that they are tired and need a holiday.

you may call me naive for believing everything i see and hear on tv. you may scrutinize how truthful is this western journalist reporting for a western television, making claims that ‘oppressive muslim government fighting against an al-qaeda sponsored terrorists and militias’.

but the images it showed are powerful enough to lead me to belief that grave human injustices are rampant there. and the fact that those who give the command, those who pull the trigger and those who took the bullet in their heads, chests or whatever share my religion sadden me the most.

there is also one chief surgeon in the only hospital in town being featured. he operated day in and out. he just operated on 3 trauma victims, whilst 3 others died on arrival to the hospital, and he said it had been a quiet day. asked whether he was tired of all this, he responded, ‘we will continue to help each other, peace will come’

i pray that nothing happens to him. bless his soul.

i also pray that i can become one tenth of the doctor he is.