Adel Needs Your Help

One of my fellow grad students at CU is named Adel Aboktef. Adel is a generally good human being. He helps out the undergrads in the tutoring room a lot, and he's always ready to lend a hand to his fellow grad students. I actually got to know Adel when, one evening, a bunch of us gathered in the undergrad lounge and we had a discussion about languages and all their interesting little quirks. Adel can also tell the difference between different kinds of feldspars using a petrographic microscope, if you give him a 100x lens and immersion oil. Which, just in case you didn't understand that statement, is damn impressive.

Adel is also from Libya.

Today, he sent several of us this e-mail:

Is there any way you may help me contact US government to help stop the massacre in my home "Libya". The government is killing Libyan people. Fighter planes are bombarding the demonstrators in Tripoli and Bangazi. Please if you have any connections don't hesitate to contact your parliament representative asking to help stop the kill in Libya.

Adel Aboktef

Sometimes, what it takes is putting a face, familiar or not, on injustice and pain. Adel is hurting for his people, and I feel for him. To ask for help like this, from people you barely know if at all, is a difficult thing, and I think it shows how desperate the situation feels. I passed Adel's e-mail on to my representative and both my senators in the hopes that might do something. I'm also putting it out here on the internet, with Adel's permission, to maybe help put a face - or at least a name - on one small part of a peoples' pain.

If you would like to contact Adel, his e-mail address is: Adel dot Aboktef at colorado dot edu