Thursday, June 13, 2013

Syria: The Conflict No One Cared About


Perhaps the western world's indifference towards Syria starts with our respective citizens, and not our governments, as Terry Glavin in The Ottawa Citizen argues in a sad column published yesterday that, simply, "no one cares about Syria."

And I have to agree with Glavin's assessment: Canadian aid organizations have raised only $306,000 in nearly three weeks of aggressive fundraising directed towards providing humanitarian relief in Syria, but devastating earthquakes brought in millions upon millions of Loonies in a matter of days.

But while helping victims of natural disasters is important, the number of people impacted by the horrific earthquake that struck Haiti is dwarfed by the nearly seven million displaced souls as a result of Assad's brutal massacres and two years of never ending conflict in Syria, which is still raging today - with nearly 100,000 dead due to human conflict.

We can berate the lack of charitable contributions from private donors all day long, however, the real situation caused by the western world's lack of interest are the fault of our national governments and international bodies, which despite years of warning, are still watching this disgusting civil war from the sidelines, even as rebel forces face defeat.

Overall, Glavin is absolutely correct: we simply do not care. Millions be damned in a conflict we could intervene ourselves into easily and without serious risk, but yet... We still refuse to do so.

What say you?

No comments:

Post a Comment