Went to the cinema yesterday to see the film Timbuktu. I wonder if those brainwashed (or perhaps brainless) idiots who want to travel to Syria really understand what sort of world the jihadists want to create. A bit like some of the villains in James Bond movies – they wanted to take over the world. However their world was different from the world of the jihadists that we saw in the film. A couple was accused but not proven to have committed adultery buried in sand with just their heads above ground and then stoned until they died. Footballs banned so kids go through the motions of a football game with an imaginary ball. Music banned with men patrolling the streets at night around the dwellings. They catch three people, two men playing traditional music on guitars and a woman singing softly. The next day, the woman was whipped with 80 lashes, 40 for being in the same room as two men at night and 40 for singing. Women were ordered to wear thick gloves when in public as well as being veiled. A woman trader at a market stall selling food said they might as well cut off her hands as there was no way she could manage to handle her products wearing thick gloves.
After we got home, watching the BBC news, there was a report on the terrible events caused by the jihadists in Central and West Africa led by the terrorist Boko Haram. Men, women and children are being killed indiscriminately in areas where we drove through many years ago in complete security. We spent 2 days in Fort Lamy (now called N’Djamena) repairing my Land Rover before crossing the Chari River to northern Cameroon and on into Nigeria. This is the area where regular kidnappings have been taking place recently, including French and Chinese and multimillion dollar ransoms have been paid which goes to finance these terrorists. If these ransoms keep on being paid the danger will spread and I am fearful for the future for our children and grandchildren.
Should the civilised countries of the West intervene? Probably – but it didn’t do much good in Afghanistan, a country we also crossed by vehicle many years ago on our way to India with our two children aged 4 and 5. Again, we felt perfectly safe, but I wouldn’t dream of doing it again.
What a world!
What a world!
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What a world!
Honi soit qui peu y boit
