Selective Mourning

Saamia Khan ‘18

In the days following the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, a sudden surge of bleu, blanc, et rouge blanketed the Facebook profile pictures of people around the world. Media outlets went wild, reporting every possible angle and new lead of the tragedy. With at least 128 people left dead, global leaders expressed their deepest condolences, condemning the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) for their actions. The day before, Lebanon mourned the loss of 37 civilians in a bombing, also as a result of ISIS’s actions. Contrary to the large global response to the Paris attacks, Lebanon did not receive nearly the same worldwide reaction, causing activists to ponder why the international community seemingly “cared” more about Paris than about Lebanon.

Following the two attacks, Lebanese blogger Elie Fares wrote, When my people died on the streets of Beirut on November 12, world leaders did not rise in condemnation. There were no statements expressing sympathy with the Lebanese people. When my people died, no country bothered to light up its landmarks in the colors of their flag.Fares then includes a collage of photos portraying a plethora of different tourist attractions covered in blue, white, and red, but not a single one adorned by the Lebanese flag.

In comparison to the Paris attacks, the media gave limited attention to the ones in Beirut. In fact, media outlets only published approximately five thousand articles concerning Beirut on the day of its attacks compared with an outstanding 2.5 million on the subject of the Paris attacks a day after the incident. Clearly lacking the media’s attention, Beirut felt left in the shadows.

Online, Facebook received a substantial backlash following its response to the Paris and Beirut attacks. Typically, Facebook’s “Safety Check” feature allows users in close proximity to a natural disaster to notify their friends about their well-being. However, in the first ever use during a terrorist attack, Facebook seized the opportunity to turn on Safety Check during the Paris attacks. With critics scratching their heads as to why Facebook did not turn on Safety Check for victims in Beirut, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, released a statement, clarifying, “We care about all people equally, and we will work hard to help people suffering in as many of these situations as we can.”

The reason as to why the international response to the Paris attacks was exponentially higher than the attacks in Beirut is unclear. From her perspective, Dilara Shahani ’18 believes, “People feel more threatened because ISIS is targeting a city that many people visit and know. People in the United States as well as Europe don’t pay as much attention to other attacks like in Kenya or Mali because they are developing countries that we are not as familiar with. People tend to sympathize with the attacks in places we know more of and that are closer or to more developed cities and countries.”

The lack of care for developing countries seems to be a common phenomenon. However, with the world’s eyes watching Europe, it is somewhat understandable that people largely sympathized with Parisians after the attacks. Eurocentrism, a phenomenon in which the general global population reveres European or Western civilization, dates back to the era of colonialism. With countries such as France, Spain, and Great Britain once ruling and exploiting the natural resources of what we now know as “developing countries,” it is no surprise that people still look towards Western civilization as the center of the world. These pro-European sentiments were reflected in the global outpouring of sympathy for Paris.

Additionally, part of the problem is an overall lack of awareness in global matters that do not affect the ordinary person. In reality, according to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, about a third of Americans did not know that ISIS controlled territory in Syria. Peter Wang ’18 argues, “Paris is more of a major city and Americans have a better friendship with them. Most people are glued to social media sites more than they are exposed to general world news. With news headlines screaming about the Paris attacks on sites like Facebook and Twitter, people simply weren’t aware of the atrocities in Beirut.”

Substantiating Peter’s claim, the Brookings Institution carried out a survey in which they found that millennials received around 50% of their news from Facebook alone. Clearly, with a large increase in users in the last decade, Facebook, as well as Twitter, Reddit, and other social networking sites, have not only become a platform for social interactions but also a means of gaining information about the world.

Simply put, the lack of awareness about certain important news, like the Beirut bombings, could prove to be a colossal problem for future generations. Moreover, much of the content on Facebook, such as comments from other users, could potentially be biased or politically incorrect, resulting in uninformed opinions.

As a whole, people need to be more empathetic to all races, and remember that #AllLivesMatter. If people were to read news coverage from a variety of perspectives, sources, and opinions, (some suggestions: economist.com, brookings.edu, cfr.org) people as a whole could formulate their own conclusions, resulting in a more educated and informed population.

Lebanese blog: http://stateofmind13.com/2015/11/14/from-beirut-this-is-paris-in-a-world-that-doesnt-care-about-arab-lives/#comments

References:

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2015/11/09-kamarck-gabriele-listicle-media/new-media.pdf

http://www.people-press.org/2014/10/02/from-isis-to-unemployment-what-do-americans-know/