Some days ago we received the (expected) news about the internal investigation of the US Government about the attack to the MSF Trauma Center in Kunduz. In short, a succession of human errors led to the bombing of the health facility. As I said, this was not a surprise for anybody, but the timing (another MSF Hospital was bombed in Syria) and the events that we have witnessed since Kunduz (continuous bombing of hospitals and health facilities in Yemen and Syria) has raised a lot of frustration, disappointment and sadness.
For those of us who decided to work in a humanitarian organization we are having a lot of trouble to understand what is happening. We also have a lot of troubles to understand how we will be able to access the populations in distress without making them more vulnerable because we are a target now. The ethical questions that we normally have within our daily work have a new addition because of these last events.
The politics, the balance (or imbalance) of power and a rematch of the Cold War have converted the battlefield in a playground where the puppets of the most “powerful” countries in the world are killing themselves and everybody around. The impunity with which these countries are operating for the sake of their our interests is only comparable to their lack of interest for the future of the civilians living in the conflict areas. They also have mastered the art of avoiding their responsibilities for those who have been killed in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, South-Sudan,… The same countries that should be responsible to maintain peace and protect civilians are those who are maintaining the word protecting the killers.
The words, the referrals to agreements and conventions, the petitions, the pictures and videos of constant suffering…nothing seems to be enough to stop this insanity. We all have failed. But there is still hope. In the same way that the peaceful protests during the Vietnam War made the US Government to re-think about their strategy, the “Singing Revolution” that led to the independence to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from the Soviet Union or the “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine, the civil movements have shown how powerful they can be.
We cannot stop sharing what we are witnessing, we cannot stop talking about what we think is not fair, we cannot stop to speak out. Because even if this distorted reality that we are living is leaving a lot of people hopeless, frustrated and mad, we have the power to change it. “Be the change you want to see in the world” Ghandi said. Let’s be the change.