We’re not saints here at Oxfam. With all the bad news about piracy off the coast of Somalia, we’ve been cracking plenty of jokes–most of them corny–about doubloons, parrots, and eye patches. Maybe it’s just a way of managing the horror behind the headlines. They highlight the pirates’ daring, their urge for revenge, their growing sophistication. But behind all that is another story–one that is far more unsettling.
Mogadishu, Somalia
The first line of a recent update sent by colleagues working on Somalia has been stuck in my head all weekend: The country has been without an effective central government since 1991. That’s almost 18 years—a lifetime for countless kids who have known nothing but the chaos and fear factional fighting inflicts on everybody.
What if that’s all you knew? What would that do to your understanding of the world? What would it do to your sense of hope?
Recent Comments