Dear Editor,
It was disheartening to read about the attack in Mogadishu apart from the tragedy of the family that died in the gruesome road accident at No 59 village in Corentyne. My prayers and thoughts are with the victims of these two disasters and heartfelt sympathies to the families. It was more demoralizing to witness the less or no news coverage given to the attack in Mogadishu. It is not fair that the media did not create much of a sensation. The social media did not really got hold of the intensity of the situation in Mogadishu. The whole world was pouring out its sympathies to the victims of the Las Vegas shooting which claimed about 60 lives, but the attack in Mogadishu, which claimed 276 lives, was given trivial attention as if the lives of these people did not matter to the world. I am not condoning any sort of violence, whether in Las Vegas or Mogadishu. I am just trying to reflect, who does matter to us? Obviously, if we are concerned about human lives, I think we must give equal importance to every one of the lives that God created, whether that life is in the USA or in Mogadishu. I wish more world leaders empathized with the victims and probably made it important news all over the world, so that the world is woken up to neutralize the wicked groups such as al-Shabab, which has been hitting the soft targets in Somalia.
We call ourselves human, but it seems like some of these groups have no humanity; without humanity there are no humans. I can only imagine how the people of Somalia have been enduring the pain since al-Shabab launched its insurgency in 2007.
Let us join our voices in prayer to the victims of the Mogadishu attacks and let us make sure we make this a ‘big deal’ so that every one of us is aware of what is happening in Somalia.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Jerri Dias SJ
St Teresa & Holy Rosary Church
