Divided We Stand

I will not add the French flag filter on Facebook to my profile picture. I am not putting a picture of the Eiffel tower with the hashtag #prayforparis. I will not write condolensces to the victims, will not endorse the public outrage with the events that took place in Paris. Before you condemn me about being apathic about these events, I would invite you to read further as to see exactly the reasons why I take this stance.

It doesn’t mean that I am not shocked by those events or that I don’t care about what happened. I just find it hypocritical that people add the French flag filter on their profile pictures and think that in this way, they are showing solidarity. Can someone explain to me just how is this solidarity?

Or is something else the reason for this social network phenomenon?

Being the guy that I am, I had to find out just why some of my friends changed their profile pictures to endorse the French flag filter. Most common answer was, of course, because what happened in France was shocking and terrifying.

I had a question for them at that point, and would like to ask you, our dear readers and followers the same thing:

Did you know tat militants and suicide bombers from ISIS performed a very similar attack in Lebanon two days before the Paris massacre? Did you know that at least 40 people were killed in Beirut, over 200 were wounded?

Did you know that on the 3rd of April 2015, 147 people were killed in the Garissa University assault in Kenya? Al-Shabab militants stormed the University, killed two security guards and then started shooting and indiscriminately killing students.

Where was Facebook on these occasions? Why wasn’t there an option to filter the Lebanon or Kenya flag on our profile pictures? And although I hate being vague, I have to in order to ask the following: Are the French lives worth more than the ones in Kenya or Lebanon?

Where was the Facebook community on these occasions? Why weren’t there hashtags #prayforkenya or #prayforlebanon? How were these attacks any different from the one in Paris? How were they not as shocking or not as terrifying as the one in Paris?

Or is it our hypocrisy that we only feel solidarity towards things that happen in Europe or USA,  in these so-called lullabies of civilisation?

Another thing I would like to point out. A really fair argument was brought up by one of the Republican party president candidates of the USA. The person in question is of course, Donald Trump, who said:

‘People are getting their heads chopped off. They’re being drowned. Right now it’s far worse than ever [than it was] under Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi,’ […]

‘I mean, look what happened. Libya is a catastrophe. Libya is a disaster. Iraq is a disaster. Syria is a disaster. The whole Middle East. It all blew up around Hillary Clinton and around Obama. It blew up.’

Needless to say, I realize the fact that he is trying to blame the Middle East situation on the Democrats and Obama, because he is actively trying to rack up the votes. But, he wasn’t wrong.

ISIS was created after the war in Iraq. Now it is spread and active in other countries as well, namely Libya and Syria. As we all know, the war in Iraq has proven to us time and time again that it was a mistake. After overthrowing Saddam Hussein, Iraq hasn’t been transformed into a democratic community. Things have even deteriorated.

The West forces led by USA and UK were adamant, a country led by the dictator Hussein is evil and should be disposed off. Little that they know, after the disposal of Hussein, a far greater and more vicious evil was born.

Isn’t it a bit weird and even ironic that France and Europe are now trying to fight ISIS? After all, they are one of the parties that helped them, not much different than the USA (ironically enough) helped Al-Qaeda in the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980’s.

Let me answer that for you. It is not weird. It is not even ironic. It’s just.. karma. The only problem is, it is not the politicians who are paying for their past sins. The people who died are paying for the sins of their politicians. Innocent lives were lost. Where is the justice in that? Why isn’t there a public outcry for this?

I would like to be clear again: I do not urge you not to change your profile picture and endorse the French flag filter. On the contrary, if you really feel the need to do so, then please do. But if you really feel solidarity, don’t let it stop there. Don’t get swept in this social network frenzy because ‘it looks good’ or because ‘it will generate likes’.

Try and understand that we live in a world that is involved with war every single day. Thousands of lives are lost every year due to military struggles. Let it be known that you care about each and every one of them, not just the ones that come with a social-network agenda behind them.

Let those lives be worth more than a hashtag. Let those lives be worth more than a filtered profile picture.

Image by Christiaan Triebert, taken from Flickr.