I have a tee shirt that I am not ashamed to wear. It has an typo on it. The typo was printed on the shirt intentionally. The typo means something important.
On the front of the shirt is the logo of a well-known humanitarian assistance organization. On the back, the printing reads...
Pixing the froblem in South Sudan
As I said, the typo is intentional. It means that we - the humanitarian community - cannot do it all. It means that we try, that we can do some things to help. Still, we cannot do it all.
There is a photo below - that's what the warning is about. There is no gore, no torn limbs, no bloody ambulance. Just a bird and a child, during wartime. It is a disturbing photograph.
"Pixing the froblem" - the humanitarian community can feed children, drill water wells, provide some healthcare, set up tents and refugee camps, lotsa other stuff to give struggling people a chance. We can tell people about what is going on, show people what is going on, we can try to help people to understand what is going on, people who are far away from the situation.
Still, what humanitarian organizations, and their workers do - it does not stop any wars. We do not stop the violence.
We try to give people a chance to live until the wars stop.
Here on dKos, I've tried to be low-key about my experience. I dunno, maybe I have been, maybe not. I don't wanna beat anybody over the head with it, with what I've seen, what I know. Still, I cannot help but feel that there are things that folks should understand. Understand deeper than rationality, deeper than intellectually, deeper than what people can see in the media. I wish that I could take you by the hand and walk you through these places, help you see and feel these things deep in your heart, in your soul, in your bones. Maybe you already do.
I wish that I could drive this understanding into the minds, and the hearts, and the forsaken souls of the powers-that-be.
The photo below...just a bird and a child during war.
The bird happens to be a vulture. The child is starving, crawling slowly toward a feeding center. The vulture is waiting for the child to die.
Cheap-shot? Maybe. Maybe not. The photographer who snapped the photo, he payed a high price. The photographer won a Pulitzer prize for the photo. Soon after he won the prize, the photographer committed suicide. He was haunted by the images he saw. This photo does not come to you cheaply.
Tomorrow, maybe, I'll write another diary and post some of my own photos. Tomorrow, maybe, I'll show you what a maternity ward in a war-zone looks like. No gore, no blood, a whole lotta human tragedy.
Maybe you already know this. Maybe not. I want you to understand more than you do now. I want you to do something - what you do, I cannot tell you - that's up to you.
Humanitarians, we can only pix the froblem. We get help, alotta help. There's alot more to do. Alot.
Just a bird and a child. During war.
No mojo, I'm not gonna comment in this diary. Recommend, please, so that others can see and read. And please, feel it, and please do something, whatever it is that you feel in your heart.