Protest about our crises

I AM deeply saddened by all the casualties in the Middle East war and wish the war would end. However I am very puzzled as to why South Africans get so uptight about the situation, even to the extent of organising rallies and making demands of our own government to do something drastic to stop it.

In our own country so many civilians are murdered every day, including babies, children and the elderly, due to the violence and crime in South Africa. Yet nobody seems to care, or at least nobody does anything to remedy the situation. It seems to be getting worse.

The latest is the incident reported in “Child horror ordeal” (August 5), where the feet of a three-year-old were burnt with boiling water allegedly by a teacher.

What is Human Rights Watch doing about murder and violence in this country? It is very busy with a war thousands of kilometres away.

It is said that the people of the Middle East have a right to live. Well, so do our own citizens.

Who has the right to murder or maim them? Many people who may have members of their families in the war zone/Palestine/Israel are entitled to be upset, but not to the extent of filling our media with their demands. This needs to be put back in perspective.

Rally and make demands of our government by all means, but for the mess our own country is in, not for something outside of South Africa, in another part of the world.

Puzzled, Port Elizabeth.