“later that night
i held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered
where does it hurt?
it answered
everywhere
everywhere
everywhere.”
~Warsan Shire~
Warsan Shire (born 1988) is a Somali–British writer, poet, editor and teacher. Shire was born in 1988 in Kenya to Somali parents. She immigrated to the United Kingdom aged 1. Shire has a . As of 2015, she primarily resides in London.
Little girl, trying to sleep in your bed
don’t listen to the sound of the bombs nearby
just close your eyes and try not to cry
and let your brother sing you a lullaby.
And don’t listen to the noise of the guns
as the bullets flash by your door, don’t cry
just think of the peace found in sleep
while your brother sings you a lullaby.
Little girl, as you sleep in your bed
when you dream, try not to dream of the day
when soldiers came with their guns
and took your father away.
And when you wake up to a new day
looking for the sun, through the dust and smoke
try to find some hope in that terrible place
as you and your brother strive to cope.
Little girl, war is the world of grown ups
and there is nothing you can do
even if you tell them of your fear and sorrow
no one will listen to you.
But when the war is over and done
and you no longer hear an exploding shell
maybe your young life will be a better place
more like Heaven and less like Hell.
With 1 male left worldwide, northern white rhinos under guard 24 hours
Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya (CNN)
At first glance, Sudan looks like any other northern white rhino: stout and agile, with square lips. He grazes under the hot sun, his massive head lowered to the ground, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya.
When he’s not wallowing in his enclosure, he waddles around the sprawling savannah, stopping briefly to drink water from a concrete hole. But Sudan is not just any rhino.
He’s the last known male northern white rhino left in the entire world.
For an animal on the verge of extinction, the fate of the subspecies rests on his ability to conceive with the two female northern white rhinos at the conservancy.
The last male northern white rhino in the world is being protected around the clock by armed guards in Kenya.
The northern white rhinoceros, or northern square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), is one of the two subspecies of the white rhinoceros. Formerly found in several countries in East and Central Africa south of the Sahara, it is listed as Critically endangered. This subspecies is a grazer in grasslands and savanna woodlands. As of December 2014, there are only five rhinos of this subspecies left. They all belong to the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic.
After 2000, six northern white rhinoceros had lived in the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic but four of them (which were also the only reproductive animals of this subspecies) were transported to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, Africa, in 2009, where scientists hoped they would successfully breed and save this subspecies from extinction; one of the four died in October 2014. One of the two remaining in the Dvůr Králové Zoo died in late May 2011, making Nabire the only rhino there. Another rhino lives at the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park in California. A second rhino, Angalifu, also lived at the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park and died in December 2014.
Following the phylogenetic species concept, recent research has suggested the northern white rhinoceros may be an altogether different species, rather than a subspecies of white rhinoceros, in which case the correct scientific name for the former is Ceratotherium cottoni. Distinct morphological and genetic differences suggest the two proposed species have been separated for at least a million years.
It Is What It Is 