Eyes Wide Shut

Anneka Buckle takes a break from Hollyoaks and is shocked at what the News reveals

It’s 7pm and Hollyoaks has just finished. Impending doom as I know it. As I look to my housemates who have merged into one giant sized coach potato, I secretly wonder to myself why on earth no one is reaching for the remote to flick over to the next episode. Doesn’t anyone care that the majority of the Hollyoaks cast have just been poisoned by Carbon Monoxide and may never see the light of day again?

“Chill Buckle, lets watch this instead” says a voice in the corner. Great I think to myself, another two-minute glimpse into the world of Africa’s pressing misery on Channel 4 news. Yes I know you may gasp in horror as to how I could be so cold and emotionless but I know that many of you have felt the same. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s just usually when nature strikes in the form of a hurricane or earthquake, you can do something. You can send money to the Red Cross or another agency on the spot and in a few minutes your conscience can breathe again.

But with Africa, in a world falling apart through race and religion, a catastrophe offers a chance to express solidarity with other human beings and that’s about it. Reality is that if there were thousands of white children dying in some part of the world, American and British troops would be there instantly, followed by streams of excited journalists

But as I watch closer things seem different. Jon Snow’s been on the screen for more than two minutes now and I’m still watching. In fact we are all watching, intensely. Welcome to Somalia’s suffering. As we are launched into the rawest and hard-hitting footage of Africa I have seen in years, I find myself speechless. This isn’t just more pictures of flies on sickly black faces and children with stomachs the size of watermelons.

Somalia is burning away as you read this and instead of the coalition and green zones as there is in Baghdad, there is nothing in Somalia to shield the people from the violence.

The enormity of the horror in Somalia is now only receiving the attention it has long demanded and it will not soon be erased from memory. What’s certain is that watching the terror from the comfort of your own home has a way of making you feel utterly rubbish.

Suddenly we’re all asking, how can Somalia’s struggle have taken so long to get on to our screen? Why should it come last on the list of priorities for our daily news intake and what does it take for people to care? Maybe it’s because footage like this rarely makes its way onto our screens that we ask so many questions.

Somalia is an example of a failed state and its lawlessness isn’t easily explained. It currently has no recognised central government authority, and power resides in the hands of local groups in areas of the country such as Somaliland and Puntland.

Although Somalia is ridden by factionalism, the two main opposing forces in the country are the transitional government and the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). The Islamic Courts were originally set up by Somali businessmen to punish thieves and those who did not respect their contracts. Even now it is ruled for the most part by warlords, and while the international community recognizes the transitional government, which has been based in Baidoa, the influential African Union has been sharply critical of the government’s use of Ethiopian forces in this current conflict.

The government forces, because of their Ethiopian troop support, face a coalition of both Islamic and nationalist insurgents. Now the Ethiopians rarely patrol the city and when they do they lose not only their lives; African Union forces become the most visible presence on the streets.

As the ruthless gunfights begin to sound like popcorn popping and bombs exploding over civilians like a messy grave, the wounded compete for places with the sick. Aid agencies estimate that 83,000 children in central and southern Somalia suffer from malnutrition: nearly 14,000 of them are at risk of death and that is in areas where the fighting isn’t as bad. It’s now that I begin to wander if these harrowing figures are having an emotional impact?

I understand that one’s own calamities receive precedence. And admittedly if I had flicked over to check if the Hollyoaks cast were still alive, I would probably have not come across Somalia’s suffering.

The fact that the people of Somalia have to compete with the attention of ‘Missing Madeline’ updates 24/7 and England’s storm to World Cup Final, is a bittersweet reality that people should at least start to think about it because for now, all we can do is watch, learn and flick over to the next channel.

Source: Gair Rhydd ( Cardiff’s student weekly)