Origins of Hatred

"I threw myself toward a leg. I would bite it to the bone, anything to stop these men hurting Mamma. But as I sank my teeth into the soft flesh, I felt a hand tighten around the back of my neck. I was dragged to my feet. The hand was so strong, so powerful. I couldn't move, couldn't hear. It felt as if a giant were swinging me through the air in his fingers. I wanted to breathe but my throat was too tight. I could not take in any air. Looking down, I felt a wet stain spread across the front of my shorts as darkness exploded in my eyes. Everything went black.
Looking back, I can see that the seed of hatred was sown inside me that day. Until then I hadn't understood what was happening around me - why the people called Arabs seemed to hate people like my family, why they were richer than us, why police beat men and women on the street, or why Mamma was so silent and sad most of the time. But the day an Arab raised his hand to my mother was the day that set me on a path to hatred. I was too young to give the feeling a name, but each time I thought of what the man and his kind had done, I felt my stomach twist and my heart beat faster."

From a book that recounts Emmanuel Jal's life-story as a seven year old boy in Sudan growing up amidst the civil war that claimed most of his family. Before succeeding as a rapper in the UK, he would fight as a child soldier in the Christian Sudanese Liberation Army. Review of the book in WaPo here.

Desert Arabs (1875). From the New York Public Library’s public photo collection.

Somalia Dismalia

Vanity Fair on the worsening condition in Somalia (no, it is not about piracy). The article talks about the potential fallout arising from a metastasizing al-Qaeda movement that stealthily seems to be poised on retaking all of the country over the next six months.

Al Shabaab militants who have seized much of southern Somalia are now on the brink of overwhelming Mogadishu. Ethiopian forces are edging toward withdrawal, together with a beleaguered force of African peacekeepers. If the jihadi militants succeed in Mogadishu, it will be the first time an al-Qaeda ally has controlled a country since the Taliban in Afghanistan before 2001. This time, their foreign agenda could be both more organized and more aggressive against the outside world.

The ramifications of an al-Qaeda controlled Horn of Africa is a potentially destabilizing force for all of the countries along the Indian Ocean. Obama has a lot on his hands.