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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Children Are Eating Leaves Off The Trees': The Nightmare of The Siege of Madaya, Syria
<...> In the past month alone, 31 residents have died from starvation, or in attempts to run the Hezbollah-manned blockade that encircles the town. A report compiled by the Syrian-American Medical Society and made available to VICE News found that a kilogram (two pounds)of flour now retails for around $100, while the average Syrian makes less than $200 each month.
"I had strawberry leaves for dinner today," Rajai, a 26-year old English and math teacher in Madaya, told VICE News by phone, asking that his name be withheld for security reasons. "I haven't had a real meal in three months." Since the siege began in July, he's lost 50 pounds. "Kids are eating leaves off the trees, and the very old are very young are dying," he said.
As the death toll mounted in December, residents of Madaya began posting desperate pleas on social media, along with disturbing images, reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps.
According to Rajai, the Assad regime is punishing his hometown for its participation in the Syrian uprising in 2011. When peaceful protesters took to the streets in the nearby city of Zabadani in April 2011, Rajai joined in. "We wanted to clean this country of Assad," he said. He was arrested and tortured. Now, after five years of civil war, his outlook is bleak. <...> Vice Media
VERY DISTURBING images at link.
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)Igel
(35,348 posts)No answer was given. The question was dripping with snark.
Cain kills Abel. God asks, "Where's your brother?"
Cain's response is, "What am I, my brother's keeper?"
God ignored the sarcasm. "His (Abel's) blood cries out from the earth."
Those who want to be their brother's keepers (or need keepers themselves) assume that somehow it's a reasonable question and that God answered, "Of course you're your brother's minder. You're supposed to know where he is every minute." Which is what a "yes" answer from God would have entailed. It's one thing to bear another's burdens; it's quite another to assume responsibility for him without his permission.
However, this kind of famine happens. It's horrible when it happens, but it happens. It happened in portions of Russia in the '30s and in China in the '50s and Cambodia in the '80s.
Those three countries, though, weren't at war with any other country or even an internal militia. These were "class enemies" or, often, the children of class enemies that were not only starving, but if somebody with food helped them out that "somebody" would often be declared a class enemy.
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)From some Americans towards those that give food freely to starving children as well as adults....it's an issue some even vote for....
Interesting world we live in......
I used my brothers keeper but with a very different meaning than the bibles...