273 Days - 273 Girls

If you clicked on the blog today for the latest instalment of our Suffolk retirement antics, an update on my exciting metal detecting finds or the brilliance of our granddaughters I'm afraid that you should leave now as I'm devoting this to an event that has been in my mind for two hundred and seventy three days now.

Some of the 273

Yes, its 273 days since 273 - that's right 273 girls were kidnapped in Nigeria by a group of thugs calling themselves Boko Haram. Now, if just three girls were kidnapped in the UK, USA, France, Germany or any Western nation we would hear about nothing else for as long as it took to win their freedom. 

Poor little Maddie was abducted almost eight years ago but hardly a week passes without her pretty little face peering forlornly out at us from our screens, newspapers and magazines and yet what do we hear about these poor Nigerian girls? That's right - absolutely nothing.

At one stage a campaign started rolling. #Bringbackourgirls was suddenly all the rage and, like the Ice Bucket Challenge, it soon went viral and everybody who was anybody was involved and posted their photo looking suitably anguished. But it soon went the same way as most viral fads and faded to be taken over by another worthy bandwagon. And all the while those poor forgotten girls will have been subjected to unimaginable conditions. Gestation is, on average, 280 days so it is highly likely that, if it has not happened already, the offspring of the vile captors and their child victims will soon be arriving in the world.What future awaits them?

Atrocities in France last week brought millions onto the streets of Paris to protest at the tragic deaths of seventeen people. Around the same time that the radical fanatics were carrying out their killing spree, it is reported that Boko Haram slaughtered 2,000 - that's right 2,000 in Nigeria.

If millions can protest in France and around the world at the horrific and unjustifiable killing of seventeen why is the world silent at the slaughter of 2,000 and the kidnap of 273? Why are they forgotten? Is it because "it's only Africa" or because the girls are black? When is a world leader going to bring the matter to the West's attention and DO SOMETHING.

273 days is 273 days too long. Please let's get the girls situation back into the news and save the poor kids from a life that's not worth living.