Boko Haram Bombing
On November 13 in Paris, more than 125 people were killed in at least five separate coordinated attacks by terrorists. As news of the attacks broke, the attention of the world was focused on the City of Light and the unfolding tragedy of yet another terrorist assault. News outlets were flooded with reports, photos, and commentary as regular programing was suspended so that the networks could provide ongoing coverage of the developing situation in France. World leaders, like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, American President Barack Obama, and British Prime Minister David Cameron, issued statements of condolence and support for the people of France.
In early July, 145 people, including children and women, were shot to death in mosques by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria. Later the same month, 100-180 people were killed by a car bomb in Khan Bani Saad in Iraq. In mid-August 96+ people (presumably civilians) were killed by air strikes carried out by the Syrian air force in Douma. In September, Boko Haram killed another 145 people in Nigeria, this time with bombs. On October 10, 102 people were killed and 508 injured by suicide bombers in Ankara, Turkey; the victims were participating in a peace rally. On October 31, 224 people died on Metrojet Flight 9268 over the Sinai, Egypt, likely as a result of a bomb.
I do not watch a lot of TV, but I do not recall all regular programming being interrupted for hours following any of these tragic acts of terrorism. Nor do I recall world leaders holding special news conferences to express their regrets or condolences and offering assistance to the people and leadership of the countries or communities affected.
The morning after the Paris attacks, the top five news items in “Today’s Headlines,” an e-mail I receive daily from The New York Times, were related to the Paris attacks. All of the major news stories on the website of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation concerned Paris. Eight out of ten items posted to my Facebook page are related to the incident in Paris; most are expressions of grief, outrage, or sympathy.
I cannot remember seeing the same level of concern for the other victims of terror mentioned above.
I wonder why Paris is different.
Of course, we grieve for the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris and for their loved ones, as indeed we should; the events that occurred there yesterday are truly tragic. But where is the intense global mourning and outrage for the victims of Boko Haram in Nigeria? For those who died in the central station in Ankara? For the victims of Flight 9268? Is our grief for them less because they are geographically farther away from us than Paris? Or is there another reason? Is our grief for them less because our deepest empathy is reserved for those who share our culture, our religious beliefs, or our skin colour?
We are all—French, Nigerian, Turkish, Russian, Iraqi—brothers and sisters. All who suffer as a result of tragedy deserve our empathy equally.
Image Credit
“NIGERIA-UNREST,” by Diariocritico de Venezuela. Creative Commons Flickr. Some rights reserved.
Recent Ross Lonergan Articles:
- The Film-School Student Who Never Graduates: A Profile of Ang Lee, Part Four
- The Film-School Student Who Never Graduates: A Profile of Ang Lee, Part Three
- The Film-School Student Who Never Graduates: A Profile of Ang Lee, Part Two
- The Film-School Student Who Never Graduates: A Profile of Ang Lee, Part One
- Bullying, Fear, And The Full Moon (Part Four)
What disturbs me is how do these nominally poor people find the arms and ammunition to expend so mucch in terrorizing areas. Media show “Them” shooting more ammo into the air than I ever fired in long military exercises where “Making Noise” was an important part. We were given a Day’s allotment for a soldier in a fighting position, but that amount wouldn’t have lasted more than 1/2 hour if aimed shots were the norm. At 60 round/minute, they would have to have a re-supply truck right behind them to cover the time of the media show.
Rifles don’t come cheap, and rocket grenades and machine guns are expensive. Who is funding this?
experts say “Follow the money”.
Thank you for your comment, Murray; you raise an intriguing question. For me, however, a more critical issue is one of perspective: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/12/good-news-in-2015/421200/?utm_source=SFFB
The kinds of bombs used in terrorist attacks are pretty cheap and require no great expertise to assemble and deliver. As to who’s funding the civil wars in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, and the incipient civil war in Nigeria, ask yourself who benefits when an oil-rich country that is resistant to corporate exploitation loses its stable government. For an interesting take one the interaction between pseudo-democracy, predatory capitalism, and media manipulation, see Maurice Joly, The Dialogue in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu (Brussels, 1864). https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Dialogue_in_Hell_Between_Machiavelli.html?id=pSKqMfiqufMC&source=kp_cover&hl=en
It is worth considering that our sympathy is being manipulated by the media and the main driving force behind the media is corporate profits. This results in a middle distance focus, ignoring both people of different race in countries with few ties to the US and manifestations of the elephant in our own living room, the trends we don’t want to admit to close to home. On October 1 a deranged gunman with an explicit anti-Christian agenda gunned down nine people at Umpqua community college in Roseburg, population 22,000, proportionately a greater carnage than Paris. I lost a friend in this incident. There was no lack of media coverage locally at least but they really downplayed the hate crime aspect and instead focused on a call for stricter gun control and more funding for mental health services (even though the proposed fixes would not likely have identified or prevented the incident). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umpqua_Community_College_shooting
Dear Martha: I am not very familiar with the Umpqua incident in all its particularities but I do agree with your opening statement. I do wish that we would look beyond – or behind – the sensationalist media coverage of incidents like those in Paris and recognize how cynical they are. At the same time, perhaps we as individuals can focus on some of the issues that we can do something about, like poverty and hunger and homelessness.
I put a lot of energy into those issues, and substance abuse, on a local level, being mindful of where my efforts seem to be effective and where they are getting dissipated into administration or manipulated in a counterproductive manner. I also pray a great deal, because the local scene seems to me a microcosm, and the problems so systemic that no human agency, be it the Eugene chapter of St. Vincent de Paul or the United Nations, is going to prevail in the long run.
Hi Ross, Thanks for writing this. I think we are saddened by what happened on Friday and even more fearful of what lies ahead. And it is fear that keeps this crazy world going on the track that it’s on. What of all of the Syrian refugees, men women and children who have died trying to find peace somewhere, anywhere…..what about the bombing in Beirut just days before Paris….it’s all so overwhelming to take in…and we are so comfortable here in the west….so we should be thankful, grateful that we are not privy to these things first hand. Angelina Jolie made a film whose name escapes me right now…but what stuck with me was the first few minutes of the film when a woman was getting ready to go on a date with a man. She was so nervous and excited and she was happy…..and he came to get her at her apt….and they went to a local pub I guess you would call it and then all of a sudden a bomb went off. Neither of them died but their world changed in a flash. They were from different ethnic backgrounds…it just struck me that piece of film so deeply. How life is fleeting….how we are not in control….and how we must be the change! Thanks again for writing about this very important issue.
Dear Martha:
Thank you for your kind and thoughtful reply. I think it is very important that we not give in to fear over these incidents. Fear is exactly what the terrorist/extremists are hoping to create, but what is more disturbing is that the media (corporations) covering these incidents want us to be afraid as well; fear is what keeps us glued to the story. The fact is, in spite of what media and politics want us to believe, we are living in the most peaceful period since the Second World War, by far. Think of how many died in the Korean War, in the Vietnam War (military and civilians), in the genocide in Rwanda; recent conflicts and these terrorist acts, tragic and upsetting as they are, have resulted in far fewer deaths.
I do not agree that We live in the most peaceful time since World War II. We are not given anything like accurate information on civilian casualties in the ongoing civil wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, the Ukraine, Nigeria, Ukraine, Western China .. to name but a few. In many of these conflicts a major exacerbating factor is opening up a territory to western economic exploitation.