When I personally saw the image of the 5 year-old Omran Daqneesh, who was rescued from the ruins in the upshot of an airstrike in Aleppo two weeks ago, I was deeply moved and even cried hard. I am an advocate for the well-being kids around the world, particularly for child laborers and street kids. Omran may have his own family and perhaps living a good life, but what he went through really crushed my heart. Nonetheless, my mind was later twisted by the thought that induced doubts because of the reports that what happened to Omran was just staged. How true is this?
In the midst of wars around the globe especially in Syria, many kids have been reportedly used for political agendas. Omran could have been one of them. His wounds were real and the blood was of course not fake. He was in total shock then. The silent pain was real and what could have been unreal were the layered manipulative headlines of media. This is especially associated with the Zinki terrorists and a man named Mahmoud Raslan, who use the pictures of abused kids in wars and violence to ignite emotions for the goal of shaking the world.
Omran has become a symbol for the suffering of children in Syria's wicked violence over the past five years of conflict. The problem here is how some groups try to use kids like him to facilitate their political agendas. The Zinki terrorists have aims to call out the attention of Barrack Obama so he is obliged to step up his military aggression in Syria. This way the atrocities will be stopped with their violent acts.
No matter the objectives, children should not be used for public agenda setting. Politics should be left for adults alone. The kids are the future leaders of the world and whatever negativity we expose them in today will bring a disappointment in the next generations to come. We better come to our senses and teach them the right things.
