Thank you all for the video and photos. Good on Mary for using her position to shine a light on a terrible situation.
Hope the ankle recovery is swift and complete Muhler.
Thank you, but it's actually UserDane who broke her ankle.
I'm the one with the father-in-law.
A fairly long and somewhat emotional interview with Mary, aired live during the fundraising show Saturday evening.
Here from inside Ethiopia.
Dybt berrt Mary i indsamlingsshow - TV 2 Nyhederne
This is what Mary said during the live interview. I've decided to post this seperately, partly because I think it's important, and in particular because it's important in the eyes of Mary.
Notice by the way that she smiled faintly during the early clips. As I see it, it's a mental shield. If she didn't smile, she would cry.
Q: Your Royal Highness what impression did you get from being in the Dadaab refugee camp?
M: "It gave me a much better understanding for the terrible humanitarian disaster taking place at the Horn of Africa. And standing in the world's largest refugee camp, to where 1.500 refugees arrive a day, (*) was a tough and unreal experience. But it was obvious to me that aide is getting through and that the humanitarion organisations working there, make a big difference. Our help is... it saves lives. And you cannot help thinking that those who made it there are the lucky ones".
Q: One can tell from the pictures, Your Royal Highness, that it moves you a lot. Your are seen holding the hands of little children. You yourself have four children, how does it affect you to sit with these little suffering children?
M: "Before the journey I thought a lot how it would be to stand with very malnutritioned children, without the filter that we have at home. And with filter I mean, what we see on the news, in the papers and on the net. It's terrible to see these pictures, but it's even more terrible to be with those people who are affected. Eeh... as a mother, father, young woman or old man it affects all of us deeply. But I wasn't thinking about my children when I was there, because it was those I was with at that time that mattered".
Q: As a member of DRF, you get a lot of offers from charity organisations to help, what made the Crown Princess decide to go to east Africa right now?
M: "Because it's important, it's important that we maintain focus on the humanitarian disaster, that we continue to help and that we dedicate ourselves. Not just now, by buying supplies, but also on a long term basis. Also on a long term basis, because only then can we help the peoples to be more prepared against such a disaster (**) happening again and again".
Q: Finally I would like to know how you look at the difference between the condition where your are, with plight, suffering, hunger and death and how we are here at home?
M: "It's indescribable. You cannot compare that in any way".
Q: Thank you for taking part here tonight from east Africa, Your Royal Highness, Crown Princess Mary.
(*) They are litterally pouring across the border from Somalia, in particularly from the area controlled by the extremist Islamic government, which refuse to allow relief organisations access. They cannot go to Ethiopia, because that area is desert.
And you know the really horrible thing? In about three years time they'll starve again. The distaster is ecological, as well as climatic but first and foremost it's caused by humans.
It doesn't help that the local rulers believe that cannons and tanks are much better than schools, infrastructure and new acricultural methods.
(**) I'm making what she said more clear, as Mary is obviously tired and affected and that means her accent is very distinct indeed and she makes basic grammatical mistakes.
- From a personal point of view, this also means something special to me. I was a UN peacekeeper in the mid 90's and as a medic I sometimes went to interrim refugee camps, because there were hardly any local doctors or nurses left, they had either fled or been conscripted to the armies.
Some of the things there affect me to this day and Mary will have flashbacks too. I'm actually a little concerned for her, because in contrast to us and present day relief workes she's hardly prepared. She will hardly know how to deal with her reactions. She will have problems with some of her reactions. I doubt she has been told that abnormal reactions are actually normal.
