written by Safreena Rajan (Passionate advocate for justice and goodness)

My dear readers,

This is the first time in over a decade I haven’t posted a happy international women’s day message. 

You see, there is a particular situation that is weighing so heavily on my heart, that posting messages like wishing all women a happy day is no longer relevant to me.

There is an enduring situation in a particular part of the world, in which, mothers and children are being slaughtered on a daily basis.  A situation in which men are being slaughtered, tortured, beaten and punished for being who they are. All are subject to starvation as a weapon of war.  As of this writing, (03/23/24) 32, 436 people have been killed. 78, 838 people have been injured, over 2,000,000 are displaced, close to 12,000 have been detained and 360,000 homes have been destroyed.

Inherently, they are being butchered because of where they were born, what they represent and the land they occupy.  And because of their faith.  Let me be clear here; a brutally ugly genocide is taking place because one country wants the land of their neighbours and is doing everything they can to take it for themselves, with impunity.

What is happening on screens internationally, in real time, is a textbook example of what I call the “Christopher Columbus” disease. It’s the supremacist, racist, imperialist, colonialist, reprehensible genocidists, believing in the old world order wherein “Lands” were for the taking, damning the people who’ve been there for thousands of years.

Were this same situation happening because a group of Muslim militants marched into a “Christian” country and took over, slaughtering thousands, mutilating thousands more, starving the rest of the population, we’d be in World War III already. 

Ask yourself if I’m wrong. 

You all know my position here; if you’ve read anything I’ve posted, ever, you would know I stand for justice.  And you would be able to infer that I’ve taken issue with how the world ran to the rescue, with rather alarming alacrity, of another particular country, opening their borders, sending food, aid, and especially weapons.

This happened because they are not Muslim.

What’s happening in the first country to which I referred is not just a genocide against men, women and children. It’s a genocide against Arab and Muslim people. By levelling their cities and killing off their populations either by bombs or starvation, they are preventing future populations from being born. The world powers love the aggressor in this situation. I don’t know why; it’s totally beyond me. And the populations who are demonstrating every week are indicative of politicians being weak, deaf, deliberately ignorant and superficially open to all peoples of all faiths. 

International law and order was set up for a reason- so there would never, ever be another world war ever again.  In fact, a particular group of people who were targeted, were heard stating “never again.”  The world agreed.

 And yet, cue Apartheid South Africa. Cue The Congo. Cue Rwanda. Cue the Rohingya. Cue the Uighurs. Cue Sudan. Cue Somalia. Cue all First Nations and Native Peoples.  Cue Ethiopia. Cue Syria.  

Never again?

There is something all those people have in common that has nothing to do with coming from impoverished countries. You can fill in your own blanks. 

I will end with this: you have to always ask yourself “who benefits” and “where is the money coming from?” in order to understand what’s really happening here.

Please, please, please don’t be one of those people who are on the wrong side of history. Because future generations will ask….