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1 January 2016 – Mukesh Kapila On the 27th of January 1945 Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated. That is why today is designated Holocaust Remembrance Day by the United Nations to recall the Nazi-perpetrated genocide that killed some 6 million Jews, 1 million Roma, 250,000 mentally and physically disabled people, and 9,000 homosexual men.  We also remember today the victimsContinue reading “Remembering Darfur: The World’s Longest Running Genocide”

18 January 2015 – Mukesh Kapila Martha is my guardian angel: her job is to keep me safe. She giggles as she dresses me. It takes a good 20 minutes, as I am not known for my physical coordination skills. Boots, two layers of gloves, impermeable gown, mask, goggles, and helmet: the outfit costs $100,Continue reading “Love in the Time of Ebola”

8 January 2015 – Mukesh Kapila Two-year old Emile, otherwise known by the undignified label ‘patient zero’, succumbed to Ebola in the small village of Meliandou in Guinea in December 2013 and then so did his ­sister, mother, and grandmother. Neighbours who came for the funerals helped spread it through traditional, but now unsafe, burialContinue reading “Where Chlorine Is Your Best Friend”

26 December 2014 – Mukesh Kapila Ten years ago, the Indian Ocean Tsunami was triggered by one of the largest-ever earthquakes. With a mind-boggling magnitude 9.1-9.3 on the Richter scale, it lasted for a record ten minutes and literally shook the world: vertical earth movements of 1 centimetre or more were recorded on the oppositeContinue reading “Shall Not Perish: Remembering the Indian Ocean Tsunami”

23 December 2014 – Mukesh Kapila Zambia is getting to grips with its AIDS crisis thanks to the millions of dollars in donor aid allowing the country to make anti-retroviral treatment universally available. But these precious drugs can often stay in hospitals and clinics while most of the population is scattered across a vast landscapeContinue reading “How Mary Saves the World – One Life at a Time”

10 November 2014 – Mukesh Kapila The people who suffer most are often the most generous. I experienced this as I sat in my Landcruiser marooned in the sea of mud on what passed as the main highway in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. The tractor accompanying us – precisely for such eventuality – hadContinue reading “Generous Hearts and Stubborn Minds”

26 October 2014 – Mukesh Kapila “senseless act of kindness’’ which took me to its author Vasily Grossman and his magisterial novel: Life and Fate. This is a near-forgotten jewel of Russian literature. His translator Robert Chandler provides this introduction, quoting from Grossman himself: “We would do well to remember every time we hear promises of a newContinue reading “In Celebration of Senseless Acts of Kindness”

24 May 2014 – Mukesh Kapila The world’s newest country – the Republic of South Sudan – is fighting to survive. As a refugee put it: “Does my country still exist if we are all dead or have fled?” To give urgent life support to South Sudan was the aim of the donor conference convenedContinue reading “South Sudan: Struggling to Stay Alive”

8 May 2014 – Mukesh Kapila Letter to Henry Dunant, father of the Red Cross, born 8 May 1828, died 30 Oct 1910 Dear Henry, We commemorate your birthday today – 8 May – as World Red Cross Red Crescent Day. If you were alive now, you would be 186 years old. But you areContinue reading “Whither humanitarianism? Reflections on World Red Cross Red Crescent Day”

21 March 2012 – Mukesh Kapila My warnings about Darfur were ignored – concerted international action is needed to save Sudan’s Nuba from the same fate. As the engines of the Sudanese Antonov bomber grew louder, everyone started running for their lives: mothers shouting for their children, the little ones screaming in fear. As theContinue reading “Is Sudan committing another genocide – against the Nuba people?”