What again is Boko Haram doing in Nigeria?

I bought an Independent especially after hearing the World Service about the group "Boko Haram"who unfortunately seem to be a very scarey.
There was nothing in the papers only a small piece in The Guardian, why is this? It seems that this group wants their ideology to be accepted. They are a "Puritan Salafist group that want things to go back to where things were before!" The major problem is we don't get the news as it happens! We have to pick the stations that we watch or listen to, to get the full picture! We have heard of information and disinformation! What can we do about it? What should we do about it? The group is so complex that I find them very difficult to explain!
On Sunday there was a piece on the 10 o'clock news on the B.B.C. that this group had taken an area by force and were terrorising a village and demanding that the women marry the fighters of the group and the men who stand against them get their limbs cut off!

Anger over Missing Students in Mexico

The missing 43 students has erupted into violence reports Nina Lakhani in Mexico City.by corrupt police in league with a criminal gang. Three members of the gang confessed to killing and burning and burying the students in a rubbish on the night they were abducted.

Also today Mon 10th Nov there were looking for the students sadly thy discovered 10 sites and in addition 15 were found. Tragic that these young lives were cut off in their prime!

http://rt.com/news/208619-mexico-mass-graves-students/
  

Broken Promises

Going back to the First World War, promises that were given then to the Arabs and were reneged on with disastrous consequences! Even now we said we would stand by Kurdistan again at the end of the .Second World War. There is a picture of the divide on page 3 of the Independent newspaper showing the girls and boys in Iran being kept apart from the nominations for the new science Minister, to hear President Hassan Rouhani talk.

In the same paper there was a piece by Mrs Melinda Gates who is quoted "Invest in a woman and you invest in everyone" "All lives have equal value  anywhere on the planet". We look around London and this holds true. Families during this economic purge, when they say there are a rising number of Millionaires in London, where is this money coming from? US!!

I look at the front page of The Sunday Times on Nov 23rd and read that "Fee paying schools have become so expensive that all sorts of professions could not afford them! They rely on pupils from overseas.

In "The Independent" today  Serco who has a dubious track record, is going to run "Yarls Wood" immigration centre despite a succession of scandals. I visited Yarls Wood a couple of years ago and they call it an immigration Centre , but it feels like a prison; you have to be locked out and locked back in. The endless clanking of keys as you come and go, The company appeared to be the best in meeting quality control and the cost criteria and provided value for money for the taxpayer.
The worry is that cutting corners does not help the prisoner inside!

Maybe Broken Promises doesn't cover this but maybe it should have been "Major Cover-Ups! They are happening allover the world!

The Boys are Next

We heard last night that Boko Haram the translation of which reads Western education is forbidden. Western influence is a sin and Westernization is sacrilege!There was a group of male pupils at a school Nigeria suicide bombers came in and blew them and a number of other people up.

Today in The Independent on Thursday 13th Nov the Christians are defying ISIS. There  are only 5,000 out of 8,000 that remain they are thinking of leaving as ISIS is getting nearer. Robert Fisk tells us that this Exodus of the Christians from the Middle East only began the invasion of Iraq by the Anglo-Americans.

There is a picture in the article of a wedding in Qamishli, conducted by Father Saliba. The article is titled  "a few thousand Syrian Christians remain to defy ISIS. What is ISIS? People say that it is the remnants of Al Qaeda, but the meaning of the word is "The Base" in Arabic. its a multinational, stateless army and an extremist group, it has been designated a terrorist organisation by the UN

Robert Fisd cites that when the Christians had to leave Mosul they thought that what had happened in Iraq would happen in Qamishli. ISIS did many things at this time to frighten us so our people are migrating.

I am watching the news tonight and the Syrians have moved away as thy think that their life in the past will never return many children singing about freedom in Turkey, so very sad it is really awesome the scale of it.

"Bahrain & Beyond"

We had the opportunity today to introduce the topic of Bahrain to a group of people that knew little about it but not in detail. We can't know everything about everywhere. There was an interesting book called "Interfaith Dialogue" an Islamic Perspective, an interesting book and informative with the insights of the area, which we got at the conference.
In the Guardian today Jo Tuckman writes about the murder of Mexican 43 Student teachers who were massacred in a rubbish dump very similar to the girls from a private school in Zimbabwe what happened to those parents who had been promised they would be returned!
It seems that the younger generations have been targeted in various parts of the world. The young people are becoming very vocal as are the women.
Watch this space you will see what happens! In the next few weeks.

Regarding Syria and the trafficking of migrants

John Cantlie was seen yesterday walking in the area that ISIS have taken, not in the orange boiler suit that we have come to expect, but in a "normal" suit. What does this signify. ISIS wanted to meet an official of the opposing group. Has this been done? Who would it be? It was stated on the last beheading! And what has happened to the next hostage targeted, Peter Kessig?

Amidst all this we now have the "shawish" system of Syrian supervisors which Robert Fisk writes in his article on Monday 27th October.This system pays the children only 90p per day! From this they have to rent one tent a lamp and even pay rent to live on the site, which can total up to £60 a month.
Where has the childhood gone in these parts of the world!

Today in the Independent there is a large article with a picture showing Syrians inspecting the site of a car bomb blast in the central Zahra district of Homs, which killed one and injured 25 It's no wonder the Syrians flee to the refugee camps!

In the same paper their was a piece that in Bangkok a gentleman was being held because of allegations regarding people being brought in from outside the country in Burma. The charges against him accused him of exposing the trafficking of migrant workers child labour violence against staff. He feels that it is his duty to protect these children. He feels he has not done anything  wrong; we.shall see what the courts decide!

Thailand Arrives on the Scene

What is going on? The girls were being kidnapped; now we have dozens of Bangladeshi males that have been kidnapped, drugged, handcuffed and sent to Thailand and were sold as Slaves, They were promised jobs and a good life. They have a family back home and are missing them.

Meanwhile, John Sopel on the news tonight from the US said that the battle over Kobani was raging and Frederike Geerdink reported that up to 200,000 Syrian Kurds have fled to Turkey, they are not very welcome as too many have arrived. ISIS is following them and they have laid siege to that town Today 21st November Patrick Cockburn says that the US are sending more troops.

Here at home we have our own problems!With our schools segregated and the communities they come from are gated, there is poor integration and they are unlikely to meet anyone from another socio economic group and so there is increased isolation between groups and problems are emerging in areas and it can be called a "fractured society" and in this climate you can see the rise of "Gang Culture" Put Your House in Order before you go and lecture to others! But when a movement called ISIS comes along you try hard to negotiate; and indeed they themselves are looking for some organisation or government to communicate with. A massive opportunity and one to grasp with both hands!  

Boko Haram

A long time ago a gang suddenly scooped up a number of well educated young girls; most people have forgotten all about it, except for their parents! They have always campaigned for their daughters to be returned. We are now aware that Boko Haram had abducted them, and what is the world doing? Oliver Wright and Jonathan Brown in "The Independent" last Tuesday reported about this. A number of top politicians say there is a moral argument for nations to intervene against Boko Haram and ISIS; together they form a growing, well organised international terror network reaching into areas that are worldwide. These girls will spend their sixth month in captivity somewhere in  Nigeria.

Chibok is where the school was and there are tales that these girls area alone and married off to their captives. They were studying to become teachers, nurses and engineers and scientists. Another major concern which concern is the fear that they seem to instill in us all. There was talk yesterday that ISIS asked for talks. But today there seems to be no report of it.

I saw on the news last night the macabre practice of female child circumcision which is carried out even in this country. There was a large lady wielding a knife and leading the child away.
No adult has been prosecuted for having allowed this practice. As I have said before this is very cross cultural but I do believe that it is wrong.  

Where has Speakers Corner gone?

As a friend mentioned last night: Britain needs somewhere for its people to vent their feelings as the times we live in are getting more and more confusing. So many people say they don't watch the news as it is too depressing!

We hear from Cahal Milmo and Paul Peachey that a medical student was among four men being investigated for undergoing a bomb making course in Syria! There is that young girl from Bristol who met with another girl from the same area and they too have gone to Syria. I have a lady in our house that knows the situation and wonders, being a Libyan, what is their reason for taking such a risk with ISIS in the area?

A friend of my daughter's is targeted by this group; although he is working in a humanitarian capacity he is still under threat! It is as if it seems to be that Man's inhumanity to Man holds sway at this moment! 

Crossing the Line

Kim Sengupta the Defence Correspondent reporting yesterday in The Independent observed that the hitting of Isis on the ground was not in the world’s interest; Barak Obama felt that they had crossed the red line that was specified and would be targeted by the US air strikes!

Why is there such fear instilled in us about ISIS? One of the many problems is there is no communication with this group! What they are doing is so barbaric in most people’s eyes and there is no-one we can discuss it with. I was talking to a gentleman today who had tried to approach them out in this area. He has had a lot of experience and written a book about his activities, and he couldn't reach them he had even sent a message to them.

I have a daughter in Baghdad and a son in Kurdistan and pray that all will be well.
I look at the map they have in the article that Syria with all its refugees just flooding into that country, they have lost their homes bombed in the Schools they went to for safety, which were bombed as well. Children from this area suffer from bed-wetting.  The Sonic Bombs which are designed to warn the adults that an attack is coming. Children are unaware of this but realise their home has gone and all this leaves is anger and how does one come to terms with that? There is going to be a whole generation of Angry People that will this last a generation! As in the First World War what was done needs healing, as in The Middle East this whole area needs the same.  

FEAR!!!

Why are we all so frightened! The whole world seems to be living with fear! Oliver Wright writes that British Muslim leaders united to call on Isis to release imprisoned Alan Henning, an aid worker in Syria, he was kidnapped in December. It pleads with those holding Alan that he was on a humanitarian act and should be released. Lee Rigby, James Fowley two others, but knowing what happened to this series of prisoners all we can do is just pray and hope that they are influenced by the work of God and Allah (peace be with him)!

We have lived and travelled in the Middle East for many years! Daughter and sons living out there with a concern that all is well.                          

In the bible St. John Chapter 4 v 18 "Perfect Love Drives out Fear"
How can we tap into that reassurance in the Bible and the teachings of Gandhi. Does this impact our lives and our children s lives and how do we reach out to all those people going through unimaginable hardship! We feel like a mother in Childbirth as it says in Romans Chapter 8v22 But it is not Creation alone that groans with pain like a women groans like the pain of childbirth.

Mascho Piro Tribe

About three years ago, I read an article by the same Journalist Mitra Taj reporting from the Alto Madrede Dios river in Peru.He told the reader that he had discovered a tribe forgotten and living in the "Stone-Age" and had not been approached by anyone from the 21st century!

I can remember the last article when the Mitra Taj reported that the tribes women shot a spear into the skies when a helicopter flew over.  They hurruled their spears at it, as they had never seen anything like that before! People and Anthropologists went to see these people that time had forgotten. and the problem of taking them deseases became a huge problem. These deseases that we take for granted polio, smallpox, measles, killed and still does such as anthrax and now the Imola that has hit the Afican .coast! But horrors a friend had read the Evening Standard last night 9th Sept that an actavist in the Jungle protesting that the roads made by the rubber plantation  had been shot!
Tragic that these people just concerned about their homeland "Big Business " solved that problem!



Very sad that for a saucepan they have risked being spotted by people nearby. There are only 600 in the area. In 1980's germs wiped out a large proportion of the tribes men. They are in two groups who move through the jungle making shelters and digging for turtle eggs, It would be such a crime that simalarily to the secrets of the benefits of certain plants in the area, we loose it all because of our greed!

The tragic thing is we can learn such a lot from these people, but destroy them in the process!

What Happens to Women in the Camps!

Orla Guerin was reporting from Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan on the 20th August and was able to show the conditions in the camp there and the situation that mothers find themselves in. Having no money and because it is a trans-cultural tradition, they were thinking of selling their daughters for the next meal! Horror we think we, who have never experienced such a predicament. Here where the clash of cultures is at the forefront of our minds.

Millions have been pledged by different Governments to the Iraq War and the fighting in Syria and where does this money go to? The public believes it's gone but it is held up and is siphoned off to other parts of the globe! We are talking here of millions of pounds. The first world which is us in the UK and could afford a meal for those destitute mothers. But how do we get it there?

Would we behave like these men going to fight from the UK? They travel there to fight to show how they feel about this horrendous situation. Would we travel there to fight for peace and help deliver humanitarian aid?

Keep your own house in order

It was with immense joy that Harriet Sherwood and Hazer Balansha in "The Guardian" today were able to report on the truce that had been declared, even last night on the Gaza area. How long will it last!
According to a friend in Gaza 50,000 apartments are destroyed. In all 20% of the buildings in Gaza were either completely or partly destroyed. The building up of that area, may take a lifetime!
We hear last night of putting our own house in order! Rotherham comes to mind! Where children as young as 11 were handed over for sex too terrified to say anything and the stories get worse and worse. The Council and social services knew about it and they have "Apologised" for taking a child's childhood away is ... words don't describe it. Having children of my own, my heart goes out. Suspiciously there seems to be very little coverage in the papers today! I have just seen Shaun Wright the Police District Commissioner stating that he knew nothing about the situation and refuses to resign, Louise Vaughn -Parents Against Child Abuse.

The ISIS and the Yezidis

The Daily Telegraph Thurs August 21st. Headlining another's life in British Jihadst's hands. They are again changing the names the rebels are known by. First they were known as ISIS which to the lay person denoted an Islamic state. Zeina Karam reports that even Assad finds ISIS too dangerous as their fighters are approaching Aleppo capturing and slaughtering hundreds of Syrian fighters and  pro government militiamen!   With this inexorable march onwards my heart goes out to those Yezidi people.
ISIS were attacking the Yezidis a couple of days ago.
I heard today a report from Jenni Murray from the British Women's Hour - a very well balanced piece! The women out their are coerced into joining the fighters as their husbands and male members of their families were lined up and shot! These Yezidi tribes were pre-Christian and their history is so ancient that with the gun-men telling them they have to change their religion this was so sacrosanct, they couldn't do it.
The Yezidis, before Christianity came to these shores, had their belief. How many of us would be able to share our beliefs! There is a referendum this month about the Scottish Assembly and how will that go! Ho the Yezidis would love to be left alone in a mini state of their own like the Scots.
I would be pleased that you would think of those Yezidi women at this time.

Seeds of Peace

Women in Power! Seeds of Peace, a group of Women bravely standing for what they believed in.  For everyone. We should support them.

Conspiracy Theory?

I feel that there seems to be a world-wide plot to infiltrate governments and promote the ISIS doctrine! The public's attention is so short and with the people in power keeping funds low they are concerned where the next meal is coming from!
So where are the girls kidnapped from that private school in Nairobi? What has happened to all their parents' demands?
The mystery of that airplane - was it never found and how does that again be buried in the mists of time! The changing of the name sometimes ISIS sometimes Islamic state-  we have mixed messages and a great deal of Misinformation directed at the public.
I feel the general public feels disempowered that there is nothing they can do, sadly some young men and girls have travelled across the world to "Save Syria, Iran, Libya, Yemen. A Muslim lady I know feels so angry that this is happening. This is her country and she resents that at this time although living here quite amicably for years, this should happen.