لماذا يا اهل الانقاذ

Nicholas Kristof
IN THE NUBA MOUNTAINS, Sudan — IF
you subscribe to the caricature of
devout religious believers as
mostly sanctimonious hypocrites,
the kind who rake in cash and care
about human life only when it is
unborn, come visit the doctor here.
Dr. Tom Catena, 51, a Catholic
missionary from Amsterdam, N.Y., is
the only doctor at the 435-bed
Mother of Mercy Hospital nestled in
the Nuba Mountains in the far south
of Sudan. For that matter, he’s the
only doctor permanently based in
the Nuba Mountains for a population
of more than half a million people.
Just about every day, the Sudanese
government drops bombs or shells on
civilians in the Nuba Mountains,
part of a scorched-earth strategy
to defeat an armed rebellion here.
The United States and other major
powers have averted their eyes, so
it is left to “Dr. Tom,” as he is
universally known here, to pry out
shrapnel from women’s flesh and
amputate limbs of children, even as
he also delivers babies and removes
appendixes.
He does all this off the electrical
grid, without running water, a
telephone or so much as an X-ray
machine — while under constant
threat of bombing, for Sudan has
dropped 11 bombs on his hospital
grounds. The first time, Dr. Tom
sheltered, terrified, in a newly
dug pit for an outhouse, but the
hospital is now surrounded by
foxholes in which patients and the
staff crouch when military aircraft
approach.