This is my problem. Blasts in Jordan,blasts in Bali, blasts in London and the whole world is up in arms about terrorism and jehadis and how the world is such an unsafe place to live in. We never know when we will be the next target.
Today suicide bombers killed 77 in Iraq ( and thats a conservative estimate) and there is no hoo-hah, in fact, BBC prefers to cover the killing of a cop in Bradford!
We have become so indifferent to the daily killing and terror that pervades places like Kashmir, Iraq,Palestine that it no longer registers as a shock to any of us(or at least me). Its like smell... we become used to it. Smell prefume for some time and you will stop noticing it, it becomes part of our environment. Its just like that with people dying. Unless it affects us we are rarely concerned.
We have become so callous and self-centered that we actually require acts of global terror to shock us out of our stupor. I really appreciate people working in Iraq,Kashmir who work day in day out without any recognition delaing with death and disability every day.
On a completely different rant, I remember the Tsunami and the worldwide cry for help which was answered. Every single person helped and everyone cared and attempted to help in whatever way they could. Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster as well. People have died and livelihoods lost, not on the scale of the Tsunami but its been as devastating. I remember an Oxford acquaintance telling me in no circumstance should we raise and send money to the USA. Why? because it is the USA, because people there are different, because it has enough resources and money to be able to handle it - what possible reason can there be not to help someone in need?
Anyway, enough of ranting.. I just needed to put this down somewhere.
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
2 comments:
how much of this indifference is media driven? remember the pictures of the injured white tourists in indonesia in time magazine? so if the media doesn't cover it, or gives priority to one policewoman shot in bradford, how much does that then condition our response to it?
so, the indian media is quite indifferent to death. we think only in terms of numbers. some 65 ppl died in delhi last week. who these ppl are we'll never know. we haven't paused for one moment to remember them. no memorial service of any kind.
so then is our indifference much more institutional than personal?
I think to a large extent this indifference is driven by media. However, I am hesitant to accept the easy answer to this question. We can always accuse the media for directing our attention, but surely we all agree that the media in one way or the other is a reflection of our society today.
I also agree that the media should have carried names and reports of people who died in Delhi. The point is why didn't it? because no channel,newpaper believes that it is commercially viable. If a news channel decided to research and personalise the people who died that day, how long do you think it would be able to carry it? People in India do not have the time to worry about others and the minority who do have the time, dont have the inclination to do anything about it.
Indian media's sensationalism is driven by an Indian public's need for escapism! This is why we have the biggest movie industry,which is why we now have one of the biggest TV industries and papers like the TOI still sell!
If you notice the increase in social charities and NGO's coincided with the growth of an upper middle class in urban India.
I think this indifference is quite personal, but this indifference has arisen because of the inability of people to lead a life without worrying about their immediate future.However, drives the commercial activities of our public institutions and the vicious cycle continues.
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