For I Care

"The Gaza Tragedy"

It didn't take that long for the first piece of news to come out and all we heard was an outcry of oh my God! and oh my God! Rockets have been fired into Israel, the rockets have reached Tel Aviv, oh my God! oh my God! Are we going to have a war? now we will have a war, yes we will definitely have a war, Israel will respond, they have to respond, they have to put an end to this, yes, they should be retaliating now, and I guess that's understandable, isn't it? No country can tolerate such a great threat. 

The next piece of news came, four dead on the Palestinian side and three on the Israeli side. Sounds fair I guess! Yeah, It's definitely fair; yeah I guess it's a fair war, well maybe not, fair or not fair, it's a war alright, but wait, wait just a second, there is just one problem, it's been seven days now since the war began and if you've not turned off your conscious just yet, the death toll on one side has now surpassed a hundred deaths whom have been more than 85 civilians, women and innocent children as young as three months old and on the other side, well sorry to disappoint you, but still, only three; so much for a war!!!? 

No, I'm afraid this is not a war, this is nothing but a massacre, a bloodbath, an 'Islamic Holocaust'  that is happening before our eyes and you know what the real tragedy is, the real tragedy is that the last Holocaust took place and we regret that we were ignorant, that the world was not awake, unaware, that the world did not care and why? Why didn't they stop the massacre be for it was too late. 

We learnt that day the price of ignorance and promised never again. The world united against racism, against discrimination, against tyranny, and against all that we as free men and women stand against and repel and rebel to and stood strong, and won and justice prevailed. But this one is happening and the world is watching, just watching yet we are silent again. 

Everyday, we spend hours browsing through the sites, scrolling down on our iphones and ipads and see the images, and hear the news of more and more men, women, children dying under the wreckage, buried under scorching debris, shot and shelled, torn apart, limb from limb, and the only thing we do, we 'like' it and 'share'  it and 'post'  it. 

 What has become of the human nature that we have grown so senseless, so heartless, so mindless that we either approve or disapprove, and talk and argue and gossip and gossip and yet, not for a moment, do we stop to think, to wonder, what has become of the human nature that we no longer feel, we no longer sense and we no longer understand the pain of others. Have we lost our sense of judgment and sympathy so desperately that we resort to such reluctance and ignorance?

What has become of the human nature? we used to live, we used to revive, we used to survive, we used to rebel, we used to revolt... it wasn't that long, it wasn't that long when our children saved the Jews from the Nazi's, and it wasn't that long ago when we abolished slavery, tyranny and inequality, and it certainly wasn't that long ago when our children kicked the Imperial British loyalists out of our great land the United States of America, and it wasn't long ago when we stood as Jews, Muslims, and Christian and lived in peace and harmony in the very same land that has become a mockery of human tolerance and human dignity. 

How long will it take? How long will it take for us to wake up from this nightmare? How long long will it take us to realize that another holocaust, that another Karbala is taking place in our very own backyard and the only reason we fail to notice it is simply because we have been senselessly satiated by it. How many more innocent Muslim children should die for you and I to come to our senses? 

Well, Obama seems to be enjoying his trip to Burma like there is nothing happening in the world and all you need to do is to click on yahoo to see Taylor Swift has tweeted her hair is going to be blond, and OMG! this and that and that and that's just that. Yes, I guess that is more important if you think about it, because George Orwell said it best that we are all equal, but then again some of us are more equal and I guess as long as there are Britney's and Bieber's, there is not much room for Bin Ali's and Bin Saleem's and their brutal deaths and massacre can't be that bad; after all, we all die anyway, so what's the point? Seriously, what's the point? What is the point of caring? Why should we care? No one cares about us? So the hell with them? So the hell with everyone. 

No, my friends, you ask who cares? well I care. I care about our brothers and sisters in whichever part of this Earth they might live and from whatever race they might be from and whatever color their face might be or whatever language they might speak, and to whatever God they worship, they are my brothers and sisters and I do care about them, and I will not be silent for they are a part of my family, a part of my decency to respond and not remain silent while they suffer so helplessly so help me God. 

Yes, help me God for I care again, for I feel again, for I sense again the pain of those who suffer in the name of ignorance and intolerance for they are my brothers and sisters and much like the piece of poem quoted carved and embedded in stone displayed as you enter the United Nations building in New York, as the Great Persian Poet, Master Saadi once said, 'We are bonded to each other like limbs of one body, when one is in pain, how can the rest stay sane.'  

Alireza Manzour 

November 21, 2012