I had a co-worker express sadness that she would be unable to travel to Turkey over the spring break. I wanted to know why. I travelled to Turkey a few years ago and I loved it, it’s one of my favourite places in the world, so far. She informed me there had been a bomb detonated in Ankara.

I went home and looked into it. When I Googled Turkey the news results were about migrants and refugees headed to Turkey, they were about disputes with Cyprus. None of the main headlines for Turkey said that a bomb had killed 37 people and injured over 125 more on March 13th.

Even more articles talked about German Missions closing, German schools and the German Embassy closing and little about the bomb, or about the fact that it was the third attack in Ankara in 6 months.

Why is it that when this happens in France we know all about it, it’s breaking news and it’s all over social media. We watch live footage of the aftermath in Paris and yet we have seen nothing about Turkey. Why did people say “Je Suis Paris” and not “Je Suis Anakara”?

I feel it’s all about where you live. It’s all about your history. It’s all about your religion and the colour of your skin. Part of it must be about politics, about who the world powers deem important and who they deem not. Turkey has identified the suicide car bomber as a 24-year-old woman who became a Kurdish rebel in 2013 and had trained in Syria.

I am happy about leaving Kuwait at the end of this year for many reasons. I look forward to being back with family. I look forward to the change in culture and attitude. I look forward to seasons and weather. I look forward to forests and oceans and outdoors. Mostly I look forward to the false sense of security that being in Canada will bring me.

I fear for the friends I leave behind. This Middle East is becoming increasingly destabilized. Yemen and Syria in the midst of civil wars. Continued problems in Occupied Palestine/Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Libya. All it takes is one misstep somewhere in the region and things implode. If that happens who know what happens to the world. Maybe the joked about WWIII will begin.

All I know it that some people are too greedy and too selfish and those people see to be the ones in power making the decisions. All you can do it try to spread knowledge and get your voice heard. I’m not religious, I won’t say I will pray for Turkey and more than I prayed for Paris but I feel the same sadness, I feel the same desperation for change and safety. I feel the same fear that we are too late for change and that there is nothing we can do to heal the rifts in the world. I fear we will destroy ourselves in a slow and painful manner and I hope that I am wrong. I hope that Pandora opens the box one more time and gives us hope for change because watching the U.S. Presidential primaries I see little hope for the future of the world.

For more information about Turkey there are lots of articles to read but this is the one I found last night. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/12195534/EU-Turkey-deal-Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-Where-did-it-all-go-wrong-for-Turkey.html