Selective caring

I am sick and tired of Western media, which of course includes Finnish media, only caring about when things happen in the West. And I am sick and tired of how the media shapes and promotes the population's respond to this. News feeds are continuously updated, oh som many hashtags are being spread, everybody is changing their Facebook profile pictures (admittedly, most often only to gain likes on their selfies) and buildings are lit in blue, white and red.

Don't get me wrong. I do care about the victims in Paris, I do. Every single person killed is a travesty. But that means every person. If you had a silent minute today for the victims in Paris, let me enlighten you with a list I found of a couple of other places you maybe should be silent for as well.

January 3-7: Baga, Nigeria 2,000+ killed January 25: Mamasapano, Philippines 67+ killed January 30: Shikarpur, Pakistan 60 killed February 4: Fotokol, Cameroon 91+ killed March 7: Maiduguri, Nigeria 58 killed March 20: Sana'a, Yemen 137 killed April 1: Garissa, Kenya 147+ killed May 13: Karachi, Pakistan 45 killed June 1: Randi, Iraq 41 killed June 17: Diffa Region, Niger 38 killed June 17: Monguno, Nigeria 63 killed June 22: Borno, Nigeria 42 killed June 23: Maiduguri, Nigeria 30 killed June 25: Kobani, Syria 146 killed June 26: Leego, Somalia 70 killed July 1: Kukawa, Nigeria 145 killed July 5: Jos and Potiskum, Nigeria 69 killed July 10: Monguno, Nigeria 43 killed July 17: Damaturu, Nigeria 64 killed July 17: Khan Bani Saad, Iraq 100-180 killed August 7: Kabul, Afghanistan 50+ killed August 10: Diyala Province, Iraq 50+ killed August 13: Baghdad, Iraq 76+ killed September 20: Maiduguri, Nigeria 145 killed October 5: Baghdad, Iraq 57 killed October 10: Ankara, Turkey 102 killed October 14: Maiduguri, Nigeria 42 killed November 12: Beirut, Lebanon 43 killed

How many of these did you know about? Well, there you can see how media has preferences.

Terrible massacres happen ALL THE TIME in our cruel cruel world and no one is more important than another. My boyfriend told me last night about someone calling the Pais massacre a "disaster for humanity" or something like that, and added that because no one cared that much about the Kenya attacks of 2013 and earlier in this year's April, it made it seem "like [they] were pigs or something". This is the danger of singeling out one disaster as more terrible than another. Caring only about some victims divides us, it discriminates, it makes some lives more valuable or more "worthy of caring about" than others.

You may know someone who died in Paris, or be personally touched in any other way by this tragedy. That is okay. But for the media, our state officials and the "world community" to act in this discriminatory matter is NOT okay, and that needs to change.