Let me get this out the way first - what happened in France was heinous - in no way someone can justify taking innocent lives. I felt the same sadness and a deep sense of futility of hearing of the attacks, the same i felt when I first heard of the attacks in Mumbai (The modus operandi seemed to be the very same too; and that was lot closer to me, with my close family living in Mumbai). I just cannot imagine the sense of loss, the families, the community, the country is going through and my heart goes out to them...
... and to the families, community and the country of Lebanon, who lost a number of innocent lives in the suicide bombing too. These innocent lives are just the same as the 19 innocent lives that were lost in the suicide bombing in Baghdad.
How do Governments make a call - Why is that if (like in early 80s, in India) the loss of lives in India were internal law and order problem; and when the same is perpetrated by French Citizens (as it seems to be) in France, is a world-wide terrorist problem? Who makes the call?
Forget the governments, how do we, as individual make a call? What galls me is this, how is the lives in Beirut and Baghdad any less valuable than the ones in Paris. How does facebook decide to have your profile pic in the shades of French flag for the loss of 130 lives, and not have the same for Lebanese or Iraqi lives? While I feel a sense of anger and deep sorrow for what the French (and Lebanese and ... and ...) went through, I will not change my facebook pic. I refuse to be a reason, even if it remotely, tenuously, makes someone somewhere less worthy or any less important. What is that in our lives that makes us inured to the plight of certain people, but jump to partake in the sorrow of certain others? Doesn't this mean that we are complicit in judging the value of certain lives lower than others...
...by doing so, haven't we made those impressionable kid in Beirut feel small, aggrieved and planted a seed to seek justice; perhaps the very genesis of terrorism?
... and to the families, community and the country of Lebanon, who lost a number of innocent lives in the suicide bombing too. These innocent lives are just the same as the 19 innocent lives that were lost in the suicide bombing in Baghdad.
How do Governments make a call - Why is that if (like in early 80s, in India) the loss of lives in India were internal law and order problem; and when the same is perpetrated by French Citizens (as it seems to be) in France, is a world-wide terrorist problem? Who makes the call?
Forget the governments, how do we, as individual make a call? What galls me is this, how is the lives in Beirut and Baghdad any less valuable than the ones in Paris. How does facebook decide to have your profile pic in the shades of French flag for the loss of 130 lives, and not have the same for Lebanese or Iraqi lives? While I feel a sense of anger and deep sorrow for what the French (and Lebanese and ... and ...) went through, I will not change my facebook pic. I refuse to be a reason, even if it remotely, tenuously, makes someone somewhere less worthy or any less important. What is that in our lives that makes us inured to the plight of certain people, but jump to partake in the sorrow of certain others? Doesn't this mean that we are complicit in judging the value of certain lives lower than others...
...by doing so, haven't we made those impressionable kid in Beirut feel small, aggrieved and planted a seed to seek justice; perhaps the very genesis of terrorism?
No comments:
Post a Comment