Like your typical third world citizen, I dream of working and living in "outside” countries someday. Every now and then though, I rethink that dream. What if I’m hurt or God forbid, killed as many people have been because of the colour of their skin or religion?

Those thoughts scare me, especially every time news of racial attacks breaks. I can handle being spat at, verbal insults or even having bananas thrown at me. In fact I joked to friends that I would actually eat the bananas and perhaps throw in a few monkey tricks. Physical assault is different however. I feel so bad for Trayvon Martin’s parents. How can someone just take another person’s life just because they look suspicious? And if you’re going to shoot an unarmed person, at least shoot in the leg, not the head or chest!  I’m just glad people are standing up for Martin and demanding that the man who shot and killed him is arrested. Anyone with eyes can see this was all about colour. Moving on to Mohamed Merah, the 23-year-old murderer who’s been terrorising France these last few days and enjoying every minute of it. I remember what I did as a 23-year-old.

I was in my final year at university. When I wasn’t in class preparing for my final exams, I was pounding the streets for possible job openings. Nothing close to this radicalized young man who’s been too busy stocking up on arms and drawing plans on how to murder innocent people, including children. I still get chills from watching that clip of Merah dragging that little girl by the hair after she tried to escape, attempting to shoot her with one gun and calmly pulling out a second after the first one jammed. What terror that little girl must have gone through in those last moments! And what was going through Merah’s mind? Satisfaction I guess, that he had hit right on target. I hate that in the end, he had the easy way out. How I wish he had been captured alive and got life. For scumbags like these, I don’t even wish the death penalty. A life sentence in solitary confinement is more befitting. No visitors allowed, no phonecalls, no TV… just the bare minimum for survival. And then God would help us all and grant such criminals a long life. I can imagine this 23-year-old turning 98 in his cell. And no parole. I don’t care if they reform after a certain number of years or have a life-threatening ailment. We shouldn’t forget that they’re cold-blooded killers. All is not lost in this racial and sectarian battle though. Fabrice Muamba’s story only proves that. I’m glad he’s doing well after that brush with death and I’m even happier at the outpouring of support from people from all walks of life, race and religion. Stories like these remind us of the goodness of mankind. To echo the words of Muamba’s fiancée, the prayers have worked, at least for now and we can only continue to pray. However, even this beautiful story got a dark twist. Liam Stacey, an undergraduate at Swansea University felt he had to remind us of Muamba’s colour as though we didn’t know already. How on earth would a biology student even get time to tweet pointless remarks? Shouldn’t he have been in the lab dicing mice or something? The 21-year-old could face jail but the best part is that a campaign has been launched to get him thrown out of university and I hope no other institution takes him on. How’s that for a life-long lesson on never making racist jabs ever again? To be continued...