Just a reminder: sometimes people are really awesome (original) (raw)

Two happy news stories, to balance the two crappy news stories:

1. Under Siege in War-Torn Somalia, a Doctor Holds Her Ground — A profile of Hawa Abdi, who is basically SUPERWOMAN. Dr. Abdi helps house and feed ninety thousand people in refugee settlements on her own property, and runs a 400-bed hospital where she provides free medical care. She also runs a school that has 800 students.

When armed militia members held her at gunpoint and insisted that she shut down her hospital, she refused, and eventually got the militiamen to submit a written apology. She recently had a tumor removed from her brain, but hasn't slowed down one bit. Nick Kristof also recently wrote a profile of her, here.

She is, um- basically my hero in every way.

1. Egypt's Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as "human shields"

[T]housands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

Just- yeah. Fuck yeah.