A Dangerous World

I try to keep things positive on these pages. I try, in my life, not to dwell on the sick and depraved and those who harm others when I’m powerless to change the situation on my own.But in Nigeria almost 300 young girls have been stolen and not much is being done by their government to find them.

On April 14, militants stormed an all-girl high school in the village of Chibok. It was exam time. The girls’ families had been told it was too dangerous to send them to school but the girls wanted to go and write their exams, show what they’d learned. The militants forced the teens onto trucks and disappeared. In three weeks there were no signs of the girls. Rumours surfaced that they were being married off to Islamic militants and forced into lives on the run.

Now the leader of an Islamist group called Boko Haram has taken responsibility for kidnapping the girls.  His group has previously carried out deadly bombings and other attacks over the past five years. Abubakar Shekau released a video in which he said, “I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah.”  He also said Western education is a sin. The human slave trade is alive and well, all over the world. There is a chance these kids will never see their families again. Reports say two of them have died and 20 more are very ill. The US is sending help in the form of hostage negotiators and investigators but it might be too late.

Parents and others have held mass demonstrations, calling on the government to do more to find and free the girls. The Nigerian First Lady attended a demo and screamed at the families, accusing them of fabricating the abduction stories to make Nigeria look bad.  (Can you picture Laureen Harper or Michelle Obama doing this??)

I believe in loving everyone and choosing love over hate. I truly do.  But when it comes to entrenched, cemented-in religious dogma, my love has no power.  I hope authorities find the girls and I shudder to imagine what they will have been through by the time they’re freed.  As for the militants, should they become collateral damage to secure the teens’ freedom, well, I’m okay with that.