The danger of statistics.

    We never forget our first. I remember the first bomb blast that brought this nightmare into our homes. Surprise greeted this story coldly at the door and while we criticized, we wondered why? Today Bomb blasts are gently warming up into a norm. Of course, when these things happen we still ask why, we still criticize but the humane shock is gone, casualty has lost the element of surprise. Our first question is no longer why? But how many people died? We find consolation in numbers, where lives will be condensed into a few neat incorrect figures. The magnitude of this numbers determines the enormity of our grief.

    Today we are alarmed; two hundred of our girls have been taken. Two hundred is a good number. One is not; five is not. Our slumbering humanity needs victims in hundreds to jeer it awake every now and then. We have taken to our keyboards again, to digitally fight this physical war. I close my eyes and try to imagine the fear of captivity, the trauma of being in a coven of not knowing. Sadly, I know what I imagine is nothing close to the reality.

    ‘We are winning the war on terror’ are intended as words of comfort, this and stories of similar invention. Stories that try to mask the surface of the damage while the wound rots underneath, but my brethren there is no comfort in the embrace of false security.

    We are tired of the faceless statistics; there is only so much emotion random figures can elicit, let us find names, let us find faces. The least we can do is to begin to humanize this inhuman situation. We want to know the girls behind the figures.

#BRINGBACKOURGIRLS #BRINGBACKSECURITY #BRINGBACKJUSTICE.