They, too, need a sanctuary, a safe and sound place, an honest, humble, and humane heart, a pair of seeing, concerned eyes, and listening, caring ears.
Is the international law deaf or selective?
What is a humanitarian crisis? Who gets to define it?
Do you hear the weary and teary pleas of asylum seekers from Sudan? Or you couldn’t care less about that crazy war? Who gets to rank wars? This one is smart, sophisticated and beautiful; that one is dull, primitive and ugly.
Oh, this one is not Super League material; it’s not global; it’s African!
How is the coverage of vulnerable Sudanese women, old people and children who are harassed by dins, disease, hunger, anger and war?
Is there appetite for covering such poor suffering? What suffering is not poor?
Who defines and sponsors it? Who gets to grant refuge statuses or repatriate seekers?
Will they ever be legally recognized
as refugees?
Don’t they deserve legal protection and material assistance?
The majority are in the thick of things; they are stuck and silenced in a sickening, loud, lousy, selfish, and seemingly endless war.
Others have left their own country because
they were in danger for political reasons. They have been forced to leave their country for safety reasons.
There is a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of religion, region or membership
of a particular social or political group.
You are the international law, the local newspaper organization, the faith-based coalition, the radio and TV station: will you highlight their plight, or will you continue to say that’s another normal African incident, and focus on ‘global’ war stories from far?
You are a passionate poet, author, reporter and the question is: will your writing pad and pen give them sanctuary, publicity
or protection, or will you continue to move with the world’s ‘wise’ whirlwinds?
