Few days ago I found online a video of a girl crying her heart out while hiding underground somewhere in Syria.
She was beautiful, and for someone who clearly was so young, she had quite a mind and an awareness of what’s happening around her. She was asking for the world to notice, to speak up, and to act out for them. The Arab Nations, according to her, are just ignoring them.
I know nothing about her, except that she is currently in a warzone and her life and those who are there with her are hanging by the edge.
News reports from international news agencies describe the current situation of civilians stuck in the warzone to be dire. Families hide underground, never leaving unless to find a cup of water outside. People die, both the old and innocent little children.
Hospitals and clinics are also being targeted by airstrikes each day, leaving the wounded and the dying with no place to be tended to.
Food and medical rations are also impeded. This war in Syria has been going on for years, seven years to be exact. It started with what could have been a peaceful uprising again President Bashar al-Assad whose leadership was plagued with issues on unemployment, corruption, and lack of political freedom, among others.
Like many other governments, al-Assad’s response to dissent was deadly force, and this is how this sad war began. But the war which at first was just between those who are pro and against al-Assad was prolonged by the interference of various other nations.
Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen fight alongside the Syrian army with the intention of protecting Shia Holy Sites. A reasonable excuse because Syria is composed of Shia Muslims (Like Christianity which is hugely divided between Protestant and Catholic Christians, Islam is also divided into Shia and Sunni Muslims).
And there’s also Russia who sent out his army because the survival of al-Assad is crucial to maintaining its interests in the region, a move that turned the tides into al-Assad’s favor.
And whoever or whichever nation Russia supports, becomes an automatic enemy of the United States of America and its allies.
Russia sends it forces, releases its airstrikes and blows its own bombs. The US does the same.
From a vantage point, it seems Syria has no friends at all. It has become a battleground of other Hegemons like Russia and the US and its citizens suffer the most.
But is the world really ignoring Syria?
No. We watch the heartbreaking videos, we listen to their cries for help. We feel for them, and we wish there is something we can do.
But the war is like a fire that is constantly stoked by selfish nations who don’t really care about the rising number of deaths and the sad plight of the people who are stuck in the middle of the battlefield.
The Syrian people deserve a future, their children deserve to live a life safe from the bullets and airstrikes and the trauma that comes with having to evade those each day.
The world is not ignoring Syria. Ordinary folks and click-tivists out there are keen on posting their thoughts on social media. But at the end of the day, this all depends on the hearts of the ones who lead this world.
The world hasn’t grown deaf to Syria’s cries for help, the world leaders have./WDJ