I will not be satisfied anymore with living my life simply for myself. Other issues are much broader than my own little world.
-- Anita Hill

Imagine living in a country ignited for years in civil war, a country like Somalia. You leave home each day praying to make your destination in one piece, studying or working as hard as you can amid the gunfire you hear around you, praying this is not the day one of those shots will end your life but knowing you’re a target just as the other 1,000,000 Somalis who have died because of the decades long conflict were targets. Imagine that you fled the unstable country, making a two-year trek through Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Niger and Libya then reaching and sailing in a small rickety boat with 20 other men, women, and children escapees, floating to any land away from your homeland. Then, imagine making land only to be held in a prison of camp until your asylum status was confirmed. Imagine then starting a new life with nothing but your shell-shocked life in a place whose language is not yours, whose customs are as foreign to you as peace for you is foreign, and the natives pity, shun, and treat you differently for not being like them.

Imagine being a woman living in war-torn Darfur. Imagine needing firewood to keep your family warm but being afraid to send your husband for fear that he will be killed if he leaves the camp. You go instead. Imagine that as you reach for the last block of wood, you are grabbed from behind, a gun pinned to the temple of your head, a grungy voice threatening you not to make a sound. Imagine being abducted, taken away from those you’ve lived to protect, and sexually assaulted because you would not tell the government-funded Janjawid militiaman where your husband was. Imagine that after your assault, because of the stigma, shame, and ostracization your townspeople would place upon you because of it, you live in silence, a silence potentially ridden with disease and unwanted pregnancy. Imagine that though these inhumane acts happen daily and have the attention of international media, you are still raped and tortured as the Sudanese government continues to use you as a pawn in its fight for economic, political, and social domination.

Imagine being one of 24 little boys in a poorly-run Iraqi orphanage. You had food, but that was a month ago. You were able to walk around, but that was months ago. You had parents, but that was a year ago. Now all you have is a dwindling hope that you will live but a frightening idea that you will die. Imagine being discovered by strange men in brown fatigues, being lifted by one, and feeling a tear from his eyes fall on your emaciated body. You smile because his body and that tear are the only human touch you have received since your country was invaded and your parents were taken from you. Imagine someone cleaning and clothing your delicate and wounded body, feeding you what your starving body can hold, and then placing you carefully in a fresh, clean bed. Imagine being grateful for this care, thankful that Allah would deliver you from your previous state of neglect. But, imagine you’re still an orphan.

Sort of makes your issues manageable, huh?

With all that is happening in the world around us, you know there is no way you can live your life just for yourself. You know that the hardships that occur in the world need your attention and will not go away just because you don’t pay them attention.

You also know that just next door, not even on another continent, a family is suffering through domestic violence; your community is plagued by young people’s persistent disrespect and violence; our country is sending men and women to a foreign country to fight a foreign and confusing war; and the ozone layer is depleting. Knowing this, can you simply provide for your own comforts and needs?

We have a responsibility to one another, the responsibility to protect and care for one another. Find out from Amnesty International what you can do to help the women and girls in Darfur. Learn from immigration services where you can go to help refugee families living in your own community. Consider adopting one of the children left with no one in Iraq and other parts of the world, calling the US Department of State to learn about the process. Get involved in alleviating the problems found in your own community. You aren’t and cannot be expected to solve all the ills of the world, but you are expected to do something to bring about peace and resolution. Despite what you can touch each day, you are your brother’s keeper.

Sadiqqa © 2007