I rarely share stuff like this because frankly anyone can click a share button and it makes no difference to the people on the ground. Most people cant even be bothered to write a few lines of comment when they share! Click a button and you have done your bit. But this link makes a bloody good point - there are children who have never known anything but conflict. When is this going to change? I started worked on thie Middle East 10/11 years ago when I first joined the UK Government as a Political/military analyst. It saddens me that a decade on nothing has changed. All these pictures you see, the political statements, the tit-for-tat arguments and attacks; they are all the same. It is like a horrific version of Groundhog Day. I dedicated nearly a decade of my life to advising and educating the British Government in the hope they would make better decisions. But they arent. People share these links, they comment verbally and on here/newspaper pages about how awful it all is but what actually changes? I left my job partly due to severe burn out but mainly because I couldnt take the merry-go-round of horror coupled with the impotence and powerlessness I felt. Here we were AGAIN! The political hand-wringing and the public bleating about what if it was my father/mother/sister/brother/son/daughter/husband/partner/friend? What if it ACTUALLY was? Its easy to sit in our cosy homes and think of the Palestinians as other (or whoever it is that is suffering this week, Syrians, Somalis, Nigerian school girls, Tamils - I had a big choice for that list) that it wont happen to us. The only difference between me and a Gazan mother is that I was lucky enough to be born British. The only difference between that Gazan 2 year old, half blown to bits in an ill-equipped hospital, and my little boy is an accident of birth. A twist of fate means that I am not bringing up my child in a war zone, in constant fear for his life, my life and the lives of everyone I love. Conflict in the Middle East has been going for millennia and the Israel-Palestine issue since the end of WW2. This is a snap shot in time. But whatever the issue, whatever the cause, whoever is at fault; the problem is not going to be solved by killing more people is it? Facebook sharing is not going to change this, scanning a link and clicking that button and forgetting it seconds later does nothing. If you really care about this issue DO something, put pressure on your government - be it nationally or local MP, get involved with Amnesty International, donate towards an effort to get essential supplies to the people that need it. You have the World Wide Web at your fingertips, use it! A three second search in Google threw up two links: Save the Children have an easy way to donate - savethechildren.org.uk/about-us/emergencies/israel-gaza-conflict?sourcecode=GZ1003054&utm_campaign=gaza&utm_medium=ppc&utm_source=gazappcfund But there are loads of organisations who are trying to help people affected by this conflict on both sides. Pick one. Donate a few quid. Or if you dont have the cash how about the form on Amnesty International to put pressure on the Foreign Secretary - https://amnesty.org.uk/actions/gaza-israel-stop-arms?from=issues If every time we shared we donated a £1 and/or pressured someone who could take action that could cause real change and end a lifetime of conflict for children in Palestine and Israel.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 08:48:16 +0000
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