Behaving like civilised beings

I read in a recent paper about the cholera cases in Iraq that have spread to the Kurdish region from other areas in the country.

The number of people affected since last month in Iraq was 1,809. The outbreak is blamed on the poor quality of drinking water.

The strain on any country to provide clean water to masses of displaced people is huge.

The United Nations says that the number of people displaced by conflict in Iraq since 2014 tops 3.2 million. What about the displaced from Syria?

Cholera, like other life-threatening diseases, does not know if the human being it attacks is Iraqi, Kurd, Shiite, Sunni, Christian, Syrian, Jordanian, Palestinian, child, mother or father.

Cholera is mindless and does not care.

But we must care and settle our differences and use the knowledge and tools that we have as civilised beings to stop the conflicts that force people to flee their homes to survive.

Ann Sawalha,
Amman