Childhood lost in present day Syria

If you google images for 'childhood', there are so many many images which you will see. Images of children - happy, smiling, playing, singing, reading, sleeping, cuddling. In short, almost all the children seem to be what children ought to be - happy, safe and secure.

Google images for 'Syrian children' and the contrast is stark! Most of the children look forlorn, lost, unsure. What has caused the daylight robbery of the childhood of the innocent Syrian children? What is happening in Syria?

Save the Children has recently released a report  called "Untold Atrocities". I couldn't go through it in one sitting. It shook me to my very core. These are stories of children, really little children, some who haven't even reached their teens.

It is hard to even imagine let alone fathom the emotional, psychological trauma these children are going through. They have been scarred, scarred for life. The cause most of them do not know. What they do know is that the country they were born in, the country they called home is no longer safe for them, for their mum and dad, for their brothers and sisters, for their relatives and friends.

The tension and conflict in Syria is about power, about blame, about democracy.

But........
........ are these children to blame?
........ are these children hungry for power?
........ is this what the fight for democracy is about?
........ will the torture these children are put through be the solution for the crisis?

Why is it that day by day we are becoming more intolerant, more violent. Why is it that the words humanity, humaneness, compassion, goodness are being replaced by animosity, hatred, meanness, spite. Is the world really progressing? Is the human species really progressing?

I wonder...........

Kaziranga - another poaching.....

Flooding during this time of the year is more like a given in the state of Assam which lies in the North- Eastern part of India. Year on year, villagers are affected - losing lives, losing cattle, homes being washed away, losing all their belongings. This year even the rhinos were not spared. Sadly however, it's not the overflowing river that did not spare them...............it is us humans who did not!!

Assam is home to the Kaziranga National Park which houses the one-horned Rhino. It is claimed that the world's largest population of one-horned rhinos lives here.

However, the rhinos have been attracting not just the attention of tourists. They are prized by poachers - for their horn!! Apparently the rhino horn powder is in popular demand in many Asian countries as a medicine and also as an aphrodisiac.

On Wednesday, the 26th, a full grown rhino was shot at, it's horn sawed off, and left to die!!! According to the latest reports, the animal succumbed to it's injuries today.

It is such a gruesome act - the thought of a human intentionally causing harm and pain on an animal is disgusting. Worse is the fact that the officials are now blaming it on the floods! Most of the area of the park is flooded. This has caused the animals to seek out safer, elevated grounds and rightfully so. Sadly for the animals, these safe grounds are closer to the periphery of the park, closer to human habitation, thus making them more vulnerable.

Are the floods really to blame? Or worse, one report says that the animal had strayed! We keep looking for somebody or something to point fingers at. Probably that is the reason for all the violence, the hatred, the intolerance in the world.

There is a quote which says ' money makes the world go round'. Does it really? And if so, in which way? I'm of the opinion that in the race for money, our individual worlds are going round at so fast a pace that we are losing control of our own lives. We do not care to stop and think of the good and the bad, the plus and the minus. The only thing which drives us is our individual, personal, material gain. We are just spinning uncontrollably.

And........
........ so it is with the poachers who ruthlessly sawed the rhino's horn, mutilated it and left it to die.
........ so it is with the so called doctors who prescribe the rhino horn powder to their patients
........ so it is for those who use it as an aphrodisiac
........ so it is for the forest officials who blame the floods for the poaching
........ so it is with the many political parties who are using this incident to gain mileage.