{"id":384,"date":"2014-05-21T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=384"},"modified":"2016-10-28T15:21:55","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T14:21:55","slug":"bring-back-our-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/05\/21\/bring-back-our-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"“Bring back our girls”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Claim<\/a>
Claim by school kids: one in a thousand examples<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had avoided commenting about terrorism on purpose. I thought it better not to add to the alarm<\/strong> that the media tend to create. However, the other day a friend told me that it was very strange\u00a0that I hadn’t said anything about the kidnapped Nigerian girls<\/a>. I try to pay close attention to what my friends tell me, and I think my friend is right. So, I will tell you how I perceive the situation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me start with Nigeria<\/strong>: the main areas of terrorist action<\/strong> are the Northeastern states and the Niger Delta state.<\/strong> The girls were kidnapped in the Northeastern area, right after a bomb blast in Abuja. As capital city, Abuja is not free from the terrorist threat.<\/strong> What about Lagos, the main economic center? Well… you cannot rule out the possibility of an attack in Lagos<\/strong>. In fact, a few weeks after my arrival there, the front page news were that a massive attack to the city had been dismantled by the police. The plan was to invade Lagos with trucks disguised as military vehicles, and to proceed to a major assault. And I was told that it wasn’t the first time that a plan had been dismantled.<\/p>\n

And Kenya<\/strong>? The most dangerous zones<\/strong> are Mombasa and Nairobi<\/strong>. You may know that last Friday two bombs exploded at a popular market in Nairobi<\/a>. And this has not been the first blast since I’ve been here.<\/p>\n

Nigeria is a large country (about twice the size of Spain or a bit more than twice that of California, just to give you some references). People in Lagos don’t feel an immediate threat<\/strong>, although they know there’s always a risk. In contrast, people in Nairobi are more and more worried about security.<\/strong> The recommendations<\/strong> in both places are to avoid crowded places<\/strong> such as markets, malls, stations, etc.: if you have to go there, just go and do your business but don’t hung around. And for someone like me who doesn’t know her way around,\u00a0never to go alone<\/strong> anywhere. If you take the natural precautions, you shouldn’t be over-concerned.<\/strong> In my view, flight cancellations and tourist evacuations are an over-reaction — of course, I may see things differently as I don’t have a public responsibility over citizen security.<\/p>\n

I join from here the hundreds of thousands, probably millions of people from all over the world who claim and pray for the Nigerian girls to be brought back<\/a><\/strong> to their homes.<\/p>\n

How do you perceive the situation?<\/p>\n

BTW: some good news<\/strong> in relation to healthcare,<\/a> the topic of last week’s post:<\/a> a researcher at the Institute of Tropical Diseases<\/strong><\/a> at the University of Navarra<\/a>, has discovered a way of eradicating the disease:\u00a0a medicine that makes blood lethal to\u00a0 mosquitoes.<\/strong> In order to continue the research and to develop the medicine they are raising funds via a\u00a0crowdfunding campaign<\/a><\/strong>. They need to raise $20,000: so far, they have raised 33% of their $20,000 goal. We still have 20 days left (until June 9)<\/strong> to contribute<\/strong><\/a> reaching the goal!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had avoided commenting about terrorism on purpose. I thought it better not to add to the alarm that the media tend to create. However, the other day a friend told me that it was very strange\u00a0that I hadn’t said anything about the kidnapped Nigerian girls. I try to pay close attention to what my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1654,"featured_media":397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99579],"tags":[951,100503,80748,1080,7609,80759],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-african-economic-and-institutional-context","tag-kenya","tag-kidnapped","tag-life-style","tag-nigeria","tag-security","tag-terrorism","megacategoria-mc-africa"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t