Unspeakable horrors: 'Stories we couldn't publish haunt me'

IT'S impossible for us, the lucky ones who grew up in the Lucky Country, to imagine unspeakable horrors Yazidis have lived through since Islamic State’s rise.

OUR SAY: It is impossible for us, the lucky ones who grew up in the Lucky Country, to imagine the unspeakable horrors Yazidis have lived through since Islamic State's rise became pronounced in 2014.

At the time, I was working as a foreign editor for a newspaper in Toronto and when the Mount Sinjar siege was unfolding we had correspondents reporting from nearby Erbil.

The stories that we published were shocking.

The ones we could not haunt me.

For those Yazidis who escaped with their lives and little else, Toowoomba must seem utopic.

We take for granted a quality of life so very many in this world dream.

Though life is far from perfect once they settle, life in Toowoomba offers them safety and sustenance at a minimum. And much more if they're taken in and get stuck in.

It was Ghandi who said "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members."

We're all busy at this time of year and I fear each of us is guilty of being consumed by life's frenetic pace.

But let us be mindful at this time of year especially of the kindnesses we show.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Originally published as Unspeakable horrors: 'Stories we couldn't publish haunt me'