One of the most fundamental human needs is to be safe from harm (bodily, emotional, etc.). Many westerners (myself included) take this SO for granted. It's easy to do when you are safe just about all the time, or at least we FEEL safe.
I spent a week among the Saharawi people of Western Sahara in refugee camps between the borders of Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania. If you have to go to Google Earth to figure out where I am talking about feel free to do so! it's not exactly on the way to anything.
The place is desolate, a desert wasteland which now houses somewhere between 165,000 and 200,000 people from Western Sahara with no natural water source, no sanitation, and no natural vegetation.
People live in mud huts and army tents. They also demarcate "their" property by building fences made of various things - tires, other car parts, cardboard. Somehow the human condition leads us to seek safety and security; we build fences even when they functionally do no good at keeping out intruders. But these make-shift fences give the refugees some sense of order and safety in the midst of one of the most unsafe places on earth.
that's amazing you got to see it Brian. In my peace and development Masters here in Spain there were a number of sahawari students - as there are in Spain in general because of the history. one of those lost groups of people who have experienced so little peace and justice in their recent collective history.
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