By As we enter into the final days of 2016, we look across the Mediterranean and see the atrocious slaughter of human beings and ask ourselves how did we let this happen?
Aleppo has joined the list of human rights atrocities. The people have had to endue over four years of a frightening campaign of death and destruction without any help or hope from the rest of the world.
Have we failed them? Yes, we have. All of us. Some of us try to dismiss the genocide by saying that the air strikes are justified because of the emergence of ISIS or that the men have left for Europe when they should have stayed and fought? Others simply ignore the situation and either turn the page on their daily newspapers or not read the post that appears on their smartphone. The bottom line is that we all have failed to do more. We didn’t pester our politicians. We didn’t post the pictures on our Twitter or Facebook. Some of us even decided that it’s an ‘Arab problem’, so let them sort it out for themselves. We didn’t even donate.
Those who have tried to make a difference have been bullied or harassed by a growing amount of people who have managed to successfully extract themselves from their own sense of compassion for their fellow human beings. They have somehow managed to develop independently the exact same streak of inhumanity that was so evident in the years up to the Second World War when the idea of Jewish persecution was seen as almost justifiable.
The leaders of this world have also failed us and them. They squander the opportunity to step in and stop what is happening. They pussyfoot around each other, so afraid to insult or annoy those who are nothing but vermin on the international politcal scene. Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia flex their muscles on the Syrian chessboard while Bashir and his cronies hide behind their not so surgical strikes.
We saw this not so long ago in the Balkans when warlords in uniform paraded around like untouchables, until enough was enough and NATO did the job that the taxpayers of the world paid them to do. Within weeks, it was all over and the Balkans were on the road to peace.
Today, Syria is a more complicated issue, if that is even possible, but the involvement of Russia is the main roadblock for further action. What can we do? Do we threaten them? Do we send troops and engage in a possible all out war fought on the deserts of the Middle East? It’s impossible to say. But we can as individuals do something.
We can stop being selfish bastards, forget about Brexit, referendums,the right, the left or any bloody stupid bullshit we’ve been going on about for the last few years and see this for what it is; helping our fellow men. It’s as simple as that, people.
hatever your decision, it’s on your conscience.
Here is how you can help. Chose your charity or pick one of your own, but do something.
Team Hope
Save The Children
Preemptive Love Coalition
Doctors Without Borders
Syria Relief
Hand in Hand for Syria
Karam Foundation
Syrian American Medical Society
British Red Cross
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