Exilian is in some ways not the most defined of communities. We encompass a wide range of people from all walks of life, viewpoints, religions, continents, etc.
Nevertheless, I feel there are some things this site stands for. We stand for reasoned debate, we stand for learning, we stand for being interested in the world around us and doing what we can to improve it. And whilst those things seem obvious, they haven't always been so and in some parts of the world still aren't. There are still people to whom the dialogue and freedom and knowledge we enjoy is anathema; the good news is that some events of late have been making these people - our enemies, not on a personal level but on a simple and existential one - very scared indeed. For people who want to avoid everyone having access to knowledge, who want to paste an ignorant mockery of their own religion across much of our planet, there is something very worrying out there.
What's scaring them isn't guns, and bombs, and the politicians and militaries of the western world.
What's scaring them - what's absolutely terrifying them - is the thought of a little girl.
A little girl with a book and a vision.
It's her sixteenth birthday today. And this is what Malala Yousafzai did with it. I feel almost sad because there are so many bluntly less deserving people, like myself, who tend to use their birthdays for themselves, and with the media circus around her Malala will probably never get a chance at anything resembling a normal life. But at the same time I feel so inspired and so hopeful as a result of the actions of this young woman, and I believe that her insistence on everyone having the right to knowledge and open and civil discussion is something that should and will resonate around the world and even back as far as our own little corner of the internet.
Happy Birthday, Malala. And thankyou.
Thanks for reading this.
Jubal (Basileus & Megadux)
