On the night of Nov. 13, 2015 a massacre occurred in the beautiful city of Paris. Six different locations, both inside and outside of the city, were attacked by gunmen and suicide bombers. At least 128 people were killed. Immediately after these attacks America started praying for France, which is an amazing thing. It is an amazing thing when the world comes together in solidarity over a tragedy. Yet from this tragedy, I have learned once again that in America some lives matter more than others. I saw this through Facebook when the morning after the attacks in Paris everyone’s profile picture had the red, white and blue of the French flag.
It hurt me because I remember crying back in January of this year when Boko Haram, in their deadliest attack ever, massacred 2,000 people in Baga, Nigeria. They strapped two young girls with explosives and sent them into the marketplace as suicide bombers while the group itself used assault rifles and killed mainly women and children. Facebook did not give everyone the option to show the green-white-green of the Nigerian flag on their profile pictures back then. It seems like the only time the horrific humanitarian crisis in Nigeria got recognition was during the #BringOurGirlsBack tragedy although that is now nothing more than a hashtag, and of course our girls were never seen again.
It hurt me because I remember crying back in April of this year when Al-Shabaab attacked Garissa University College in Kenya and gunmen stole the lives of 147 innocent people. The shooting lasted for hours. Facebook did not give everyone the option to show the black, red, green and white of the Kenyan flag on their profile pictures back then.
On Jan. 2 of this year Boko Haram attacked a bus in Cameroon, killing 15 people and injuring 10 others. The next day a militant in El Fahs, Tunisia stabbed a police officer to death. The day after that there was a roadside bombing in Gao Region in Mali which injured six people. There were bombings in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Turkey all during the first week of January, but the only attack I remember hearing about in the news during that time was the two gunmen who entered the news magazine office of the magazine Charlie Hebdo after which we saw the rise of the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie.
Terrible things happen in the world every day and I realize that it might be close to impossible to cover all of them in the news. But I have noticed a pattern of one event getting very extensive coverage and nothing being said about everything else that is happening. Indirectly, this is a way of showing which countries and which lives actually matter. I am not trying to invalidate the tragedy that befell France in any way; I just want to make the point that by zeroing in on one tragedy for so long and not paying any mind to multiple other tragedies it is pretty obvious to see which lives matter more to America.
Of course tragedies in Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq don’t matter because there is terrorism and suicide bombings must happen every day over there. Of course tragedies in Nigeria, Mali, Cameroon and Kenya don’t matter because Africa is just a war-torn, terror-filled, poverty-stricken continent and terrible things happen every day over there. Those places aren't important. Those lives don't matter. This is what the media is telling me every day that viewers are asked to pray for France but not informed about the rest of the world.
Each and every individual has the ability to influence change in this world, but when we are not properly informed we will never know about all the places that might need our help and our prayers. I have not even begun to touch the surface of all the terrible events that have happened worldwide during this year alone and for that I apologize. But I also call on everyone to stay informed about everything; do not let the media dictate which tragedies and which lives matter because they all do. I am praying for the world. I hope everyone else is too.
