It was night of Saturday the 28th of Febru- ary. I went to the charity dinner organized by Africaso to generate funds to aid the civilians of Sierra Leone, where peace is shattered by a brutal and bloody civil war. My own mind was no less turbulent, having to deal with many complicated issues for the first time. All I expected was some good food, to meet new people and generally to have a good time. But it turned out to be one of those things where you expect something mundane and things turn out to be so much better, giving you a new dimension to life itself.
At first there was a talk to explain the real situation -- what exactly was going on and why the civil war had started in the first place. This was necessary because the horrific events that are still happening in Sierra Leone are rarely reported by the western media. Although well over 4,000 people died in a matter of two weeks, it was featured only sporadically on CNN, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Fox News and the rest of the American based news agencies. BBC was the only news network to cover the atrocities comprehensively.
The talk was followed by the actual dinner itself. I missed out on most of the food, as I was talking with the some of the gentlemen from Sierra Leone, who had visited from Boston. I heard the usual comments from the people "The food is excellent," "Thanks for a wonderful evening," etc. The apathy of most people however was appalling. While it is true that they were there to eat, it still bothers me that few wanted to know what the people of Sierra Leone were going through.
Then there was the video. Some footage of the atrocities being committed in Sierra Leone. Coming from India, I have seen some pretty brutal scenes in real life, but what I saw completely blew my mind. This was no movie. Those were real people, they were really getting shot, they were really bleeding and they were really dying -- slowly and painfully. There were some 40 people before the video was played and five minutes into it, there were about four of us left. It is no exaggeration when I say that it was graphic.
By the time all the cleaning up was done, the few of us who were left went to the restaurant "Taste of Africa" in White River Junction. A friend of mine drove eight of us in her little tiny car. Yes, it's against the law, but sometimes it's ok to bend the law a little bit to accommodate matters more glorious -- bonding, merriment and laughter. Being the only one in the group, not from Africa or the Caribbean made me feel a little awkward at first, but I soon found out that Africans have one of those rare attitudes which allow you to blend smoothly and start talking as if you've known them all your life. While they were enjoying themselves and having a good time, I could not help but notice the deep concern that they shared beneath all that merriment. Their people, their own family and friends are no longer secure. Life has no guarantee and no one seems to care.
You see, in life as in basketball, no one gives the not-so-flashy players a chance. 40 people get killed in Kosovo and CNN is all over the place reporting the "terrible tragedy." 4,000 die in Sierra Leone and it is not even front page news. The underlying attitude seems to be: "It's just a bunch of Africans fighting among themselves -- who needs them anyway?" The truth of the matter is there are external parties involved -- some of them close to home. If you do care to find out the truth, you would at least spend five minutes of your time looking at www.sierra-leone.org or bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/default.htm. It's perfectly fine if you cannot help them in any way -- but it is a crime against the human spirit not to know the truth.
