Life’s a balancing act. Friends, family, finance, all important things that you need. You’ll find almost everyone agree, that these things are needed in day-to-day for social comfort. The 3 Fs.
That is, until, a bomb goes off in your face, as was the case in Brussels on 22nd March, 2016. What’s important then? Family, friends, and a first aid kit.
Or, you could be this person, who probably prioritized family, friends, and a furious disappointment.
The sad truth is, they are right. Turkey isn’t on there, despite their hit by a suicide bomber was just 3 days before Brussels. And next thing I knew, I was feeling angry. I was angry at terrorists and sensational reporting alike. I was also angry at the person above.
We chose to value lives the same way terrorists do, pricing certain groups of people over another.
You see, as far as I am concerned, none of them got the point. As far as I am concerned, all three factions, the terrorist, the media, that person above, they all valued a human life the same way.
Above another.
What is the value of a human life? When the media decided to report Brussels more than Turkey, are they valuing the life of Belgians above the Turks? What about the person who is disappointed that Turkey was knocked off the hashtag list? Were they putting Turks above Belgians?
But of course, it doesn’t matter, because that rage is phony. It’s, as far as I’m concern, only making 1 person feel good. The person who posted that Facebook post.
Because Nusaybin, Turkey had a bombing, where 1 soldier died and 6 others were injured. When was this? Just after Brussels. But because it was 1 person dead and not 36, nobody cared.
Because the person who was so outraged that the lost of life in one part of the world overshadowed another was busy being angry at another group that thought lives at a western country would bring more views than a middle-eastern.
Because people are important. End of story.
I keep Wikipedia pinned up in my browser, every time I load it, to the page that keeps track of terrorist attacks and death. It’s a quick way to see an overview of the death toll.
When I see 37 people die in Ankara, Turkey on the 13th of March, I don’t think of them as overlaps of the 16 who died at Ivory Coast on the same day. I just think, “Shit, 53 people died.”
Because honestly, who knew 145 people died in a bombing in Nigeria last month? Even I did not know that on the day itself. It skipped my feed. And I’m tuned into events like this, whereas most people might not be.
Why are we getting angry at the press? What’s with this self-righteous rage?
300 people were executed in Iraq. More than 300 was massacred in Syria. Nigeria alone has suffered more than 200 terrorist related deaths in the past 3 months. More than 1,000 people died this year in terrorist attacks alone. A six year old child was killed in the Philippines.
But because it was 1 person dead and not 36, nobody cared.
And somehow, we are angrier that Ankara was not reported ‘as much’ as Brussels, when we should really be mourning all the lives lost collectively and uniting to stop the insane violence from spreading.
But no. Instead, we chose to be angry at the BBC for not having a reporter everywhere in the world. We chose to value lives the same way terrorists do, pricing certain groups of people over another.
Remember the three Fs at the start of this page? Notice how no matter the situation, the two things that stayed the same are family and friends?
Because people are important. End of story.
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