Did you change your Display Picture on Facebook and elsewhere to the French flag when gunmen and suicide bombers attacked various Paris locations in a coordinated attack? After all it was only befitting that we all showed our solidarity for the French people by this small gesture. So, did you also change your DP today following the two bombings in Baghdad which killed 126 innocents? Or did you perhaps change it to the Bangladeshi flag following the attack on a café in Dhaka on Friday 1 July where 20 people died?
Some lives are more precious than others
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It is true that millions rushed to change their profile picture to the French flag in November 2015. Facebook very helpfully offered to overlay our DPs with a French flag so we would also mourn with our French brethren. At the same time, there were terrible attacks in Kenya, Beirut and Damascus and neither Facebook nor the rest of us seemed to care. There was also no way to mark oneself ‘safe’ in the latter case.
One of the reasons why the Dhaka incident of last Friday tended to garner notice was the fact that all of those killed were foreign nationals. The Pope also had something to say; “expresses heartfelt condolences and condemns such barbarous acts as offences against God and humanity,” said a telegram. One cannot help feeling that the fact that 9 of those who died were Italian nationals may have had something to do with it.
Why is our outrage so selective?
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The western media is certainly very selective about the way that terror incidents are reported. It may be argued that terror attacks in some parts of the world are so frequent that the western media feels it is not required to devote acres of newsprint and hours of prime time reportage and debate to the incidents. The western media is reporting on incidents that concern them and their audiences. Their audiences are perhaps not concerned with what goes on in Gaza, the West Bank, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and so on; which slants the reportage.
But what about us Indians? Why is it that what happens in France matters more to us than what happens in neighbouring Dhaka or Iran which supplies most of our oil? Why are we so selective in our outrage? Why do our Facebook statuses and other social network posts speak long and seriously about some tragedies but not others? Is it a colonial hangover? Is it that we all want to appear trendy and want to be seen doing all the ‘sensitive’ stuff that our friends do? Is that the West is still what a great many Indians aspire to and hence feel a certain kinship?
Or it is that some places in the world suffer attacks so frequently as to make it difficult for us to keep track. Surely the frequency of attacks on innocents should make us more outraged, more shocked and more distressed? Shouldn’t Baghdad distress us more than Paris?
Author – Reena Daruwalla
