Will someone please think of the children?

When we saw the story about the Chinese schools sponsored by tobacco companies, we thought things had sunk to a new low. Until we noticed the one about the Somali Koran quiz. Top prize? An AK-47.

Apparently, a slogan on the walls of some schools in China reads, “Genius comes from hard work -Tobacco helps you become talented”, a tip of the hat towards the country’s Government-controlled national cigarette company which sponsors dozens of schools in the country.

As “potentially harmful stories about children” go, however, it’s not even close to the one we noticed in Somalia.

A Koran-themed general knowledge and recitation evening for children – sounds like a bundle of laughs, doesn’t it?

That’s what Andulus radio station, based near the Somali capital of Mogadishu, held during Ramadan in August, but it was the prizes on offer that really made us sit up and take notice – although running away and diving for cover would also be an apt response.

The event saw teams of four, between the ages of 10 and 17, represent their regions from around Somalia on national radio. Sort of like Blackboard Jungle with automatic weapons.

The first prize was an AK-47 plus a bundle of cash amounting to the equivalent of $700. Possibly in unmarked bills.

Just to show that they really respected the runners-up, the powers-that-be also gave an AK-47 to the second-placed team, plus a slightly smaller sum in seed capital for gang-related business ventures.

And the jaw-droppingly inappropriate nature of the life-threatening prizes didn’t stop there, as the third placed team “won” two hand grenades.

Mukhtar Robow, who is a complete crackpot senior official with rebel Islam militant group al-Shabaab, said, “Youths should use one hand for education and the other for a gun to defend Islam.”

Quite.