Friday Thoughts: Syrian Refugee Crisis

Photograph by Michael Goldrab published in Doctors Without Borders website (see below for more info)

I had been listening to World Food Program tweets on their food donation drive for Syrian refugees in Jordon and Lebanon for some days now. But you see, Syria seemed so far away, and our own domestic problems (in India) seemed pressing and somehow more significant. So I listened but didn't really care.

Then perchance I clicked on the link in a tweet sent by Doctors Without Borders and saw a series of photographs of refugee camps and their conditions. The photograph above of the latrine struck a note. So many of us Indians do not have proper toilets or if present, in unimaginable conditions. Somehow in shared knowledge of pain, I felt a kinship.

See all the photos here: Slideshow of Lebanon Refugee Camp

Then I remembered my friends in United States who always make it a point to send me a message or call me if there protests, movements, terrorist attacks in India. Wasn't India a far-off land for them? Why did they read? Why did they care?

And in that reflection, I began to think through this notion of nation-state, which was most beautifully explained to my by a friend in the context of Indo-pak conflict: They place a line on the land and say this is mine and that is theirs and then fight over the line. But Earth never belonged to anybody.

People in pain anywhere in the world are in pain. Even though Syria seems afar from our cultural consciousness, the pain of the people is pain of the members of Earth family.

Since March 2012, reports estimate anywhere between 200,000-400,000 refugees have fled to escape Syrian civil war to Lebanon and Jordon. Since January this year, almost 40,000 refugees have streamed into these countries. AID agencies are unable to cope and provide food and basic support to them. The conditions in the camp are appalling. Various groups have launched food donation drives and support is requested.

If you can donate, please do here:
http://www.wfp.org/content/emergency-food-assistance-syrian-refugees-lebanon

If you cannot, please at least read these links and make yourself aware of the suffering that is unfolding before our eyes.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/01/201312994227423122.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/07/syrian-refugee-camp-life