Which Dead Count?
There are the important dead, and then there are the unimportant dead. The important dead are those who are well-known and rich. When David Bowie died from cancer, the world mourned. Fine, because his work marked many lives. His was an important death. But there are many workers who have marked many lives, and yet are never recognized for what they have done. I can't name them, simply because they are anonymous! They are the simple workers who create infrastructure that make our lives easier, or who save our lives by keeping us healthy and safe through their jobs. They are the workers that might live paycheck to paycheck. Only their families mourn them. They are the unimportant dead.
Globally speaking, there are the important victims and the unimportant victims. Every time there is a victim of terrorism on European, American, or Australasian soil, everyone puts a flag of the country affected over their Facebook picture. Everyone holds vigils for them. Everyone decries the barbary that has spawned death and destruction. Of course. Those victims are victims of the First World. They are our neighbors and we belong to the exclusive club of the richest countries in the world. We see these victims as the important dead.
Last month around forty people were killed in an airport bombing in Istanbul. Little did we hear of it, but it was similar to the attack in Brussels earlier in the year, and we did hear about that one. Earlier this month a car bomb exploded in Baghdad outside a popular ice cream parlor at the end of a long, extremely hot day. Over two hundred people were killed, many of them children. It might have made the news two days and then it disappeared. No one put the Iraqi flag over their profile picture. There was a similar reaction to the attack in Lahore, which targeted simple families out for an evening stroll. But these countries are not First World. They are Third World, Second, perhaps, in Turkey's case. These victims are the unimportant dead.
Have those who choose the important news items ever given thought to the fact that we all bleed the same color? And have they ever thought that the more coverage they give to the First World terrorist attacks, the more they feed the egomania that perpetrated them in the first place? One of two things should be done. Either give equal anger to each and every attack, no matter where they happen, or give the same, small blurb to all of them, including the ones with the "important" victims.
But, being in a world obsessed with making the most possible money, the last option wouldn't bring in revenue because it would rob news outlets of the screaming headlines that bring readers and money. The first option would give readers headlines they would find confusing. Most don't even know where to place Iraq or Pakistan on a map. Some don't even know where to place themselves. First World citizens have never been taught about other cultures, other circumstances, or other people. Education here is usually concerned with staring at our navels. Perhaps that is where we should begin.
Globally speaking, there are the important victims and the unimportant victims. Every time there is a victim of terrorism on European, American, or Australasian soil, everyone puts a flag of the country affected over their Facebook picture. Everyone holds vigils for them. Everyone decries the barbary that has spawned death and destruction. Of course. Those victims are victims of the First World. They are our neighbors and we belong to the exclusive club of the richest countries in the world. We see these victims as the important dead.
Last month around forty people were killed in an airport bombing in Istanbul. Little did we hear of it, but it was similar to the attack in Brussels earlier in the year, and we did hear about that one. Earlier this month a car bomb exploded in Baghdad outside a popular ice cream parlor at the end of a long, extremely hot day. Over two hundred people were killed, many of them children. It might have made the news two days and then it disappeared. No one put the Iraqi flag over their profile picture. There was a similar reaction to the attack in Lahore, which targeted simple families out for an evening stroll. But these countries are not First World. They are Third World, Second, perhaps, in Turkey's case. These victims are the unimportant dead.
Have those who choose the important news items ever given thought to the fact that we all bleed the same color? And have they ever thought that the more coverage they give to the First World terrorist attacks, the more they feed the egomania that perpetrated them in the first place? One of two things should be done. Either give equal anger to each and every attack, no matter where they happen, or give the same, small blurb to all of them, including the ones with the "important" victims.
But, being in a world obsessed with making the most possible money, the last option wouldn't bring in revenue because it would rob news outlets of the screaming headlines that bring readers and money. The first option would give readers headlines they would find confusing. Most don't even know where to place Iraq or Pakistan on a map. Some don't even know where to place themselves. First World citizens have never been taught about other cultures, other circumstances, or other people. Education here is usually concerned with staring at our navels. Perhaps that is where we should begin.
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