Numbers With Stories

Ever since the rise of conflict in the Middle East began, we have been hearing the same jargon being repeated over and over again by the media, by the politicians, by the desensitized public; "terrorism", "casualties", "collateral damage", "statistics", "percentages"etc... the list can go on for days. But it is very rarely that we hear from the actual effected civilians themselves; so rarely that at times we go as far as to forget these numbers actually account for people. We spend so much time equating an entire life, something so valuable, so precious and so beautiful to sound bites and statistics, that we forget that it easily could have been us, or own our families, or own our friends. This has desensitized us to the fact that these atrocities we see daily on the news happens to people just like you or me, making it harder for us to relate or sometimes even impossible for us to care. We may sometimes glance at the TV or the news, utter a quick "that's a real shame" or "how horrible", just to make ourselves feel less ignorant and a little more humane, but the truth is; we don't know what these people are feeling, or what they have gone through, or how they are going to be effected by it for the rest of their lives. We usually get carried away with the blame game and forget that as we are arguing, these people are paying the price with their own lives. Innocent children, women and men are being massacred, traumatized and scarred for life, while we sit here tracing history and wondering where we went wrong. The numbers and statistics, which the news channels seem to love to bring up, have reached an all time high. Each one of those numbers, has a story, a dream, an experience that they would love to share with the world; and although I will never be able to publish every single number's story, we all have to start somewhere right?

That is why I have started this blog. Here, you will be able to read experiences, stories, and views from people who have been victimized by the atrocities of war; whether its through direct experience (injuries, traumas, experiences and the like), or through loss of identity, expulsion from their home or longing for peace.