What the News is Yet to Share: The Rohingya Genocide

   The Syrian refuge crisis is a topic widely known amongst Americans and Europeans; the ones living with the crisis outside their front door. However, the news is not speaking about the refuges from Rohingya coming to Bangladesh. The UN estimates the over 70,000 refuges have fled in less than a week. This is due to the fact that the Rohingya, a Muslim group of people living in Myanmar, are suffering from religious persecution of their military. Of course, the military is not taking responsibility for their crimes; claiming that this is the act of “terrorists”.  This is a wild thing for an American to even imagine: the people who are suppose to protect you burning down your home.
   The Rohingya people understand that they are still putting their lives in danger by fleeing. For example, a refuge boat recently capsized; killing 20 people, 12 of them being children. However, what choice do they have? There is no hope for a good life in their homes, so there only other option is to try and escape. These people have absolutely nothing left. It is hard for me to even imagine what it is to have absolutely nothing. For example, Nobin Shuna told CNN in regards to staying, “How could we survive? I have no money. After seeing the massacre, I traveled all the way to the Bangladesh border. I left my home four days ago. Now where would I go? My son was killed”. It is horribly ironic that Suu Kyi, the leader of the Myanmar’s leader is a Nobel peace prize winner, and she is the one in charge of the attacks. In my opinion, that title should be taken away. This battle between Buddhists and Muslims has gone on for many years and it has escalated to this point of ethnic cleansing. There is not much we can do, for most money sent to these countries is stolen in customs, but the least we can do is recognize that this is going on.
We can educate ourselves about real issues like this, not about what shoes Melania Trump is wearing.
Start a conversation, don't listen and nod.