This is one of the very, very few times that I will ever post about anything that's not Doctor Who related. But this has got to be shared.
Right now there are massive protests going on in Libya to oust the dictator Gaddafi, as well as in Bahrain to oust the ruling Al Khalifa family. If you've heard about the Egypt and Tunisia protests that started in earlier weeks, this is pretty much along the same lines. Except for two things:
1). There is far more violence, far more death, occurring in the Libyan and Bahraini protests;
2). There is far less attention being paid to them by the international community.
What we're seeing here is the beginnings of a fundamental shift of power in the Middle East. There's hope and beauty to be found in the peoples of Libya and Bahrain, but the ruling powers are fighting tooth and nail to hold on. And that's a massive understatement.
In Libya, soldiers are being burned alive when they refuse to shoot protesters. Gaddafi has given orders to sanction rape of any protesting women. Soldiers are shooting injured in hospitals. There are images too disturbing for me to post, of people ripped - literally ripped - in half.
In Bahrain, the situation is not as violent (I think), but it is escalating. Tear gas has been used on protesters and the death toll is steadily climbing.
I know how it feels to open a blog you usually read for fun and see some preachy post trying to make you change something you can't change. I'm not going to ask you for anything big. Just please, please take about fifteen minutes and read about what's going on, if you don't know already. There are some links below that may help.
And then talk about it. Take a minute and talk about it at dinner, to your parents, to your friends. It's going to be jarring. No one likes to talk about rape and mutilation. But please do it, for five minutes, sometime today. Not enough people are talking, and with every person who refuses to keep silent, the suffering these people are going through in their pursuit of democracy will mean a little bit more. Write to your MP or representative, but only if you want to. In the meanwhile, just read and talk. Please.
Remember: read and talk. It's the best thing you can do. It's enough.
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