While thousands of people (including me) gathered today all over Europe to (rightfully) mourn the deaths of the Charlie Hebdo journalists, I couldnt help but think about the 7 people who died in a terrorist attack in Rawalpindi, Pakistan this week, the 2000+ people who were murdered in Baga, Nigeria by Boko Haram or the fact that the UN released a report on ethnic cleansing in the Central African Republic, where Christians murdered at least 6000 Muslims in the ongoing civil war, 6 more dead humans in Nigeria in a Boko Haram suicide bombing and 9 dead humans in Lebanon in another suicide bombing. All of that happened this week, including many more violent deaths. So why dont we have a gathering in front of the other respective embassies? Why do the deaths of the french journalists feel so much closer or more important to so many? Is it just because the other places are physically more distant? Culturally more different to many europeans? How did so many chose who to mourn more, whose deaths touch them more? Did they chose? I am not sure I have an idea what the answer could be, but this is what Teju Cole has to say: newyorker/culture/cultural-comment/unmournable-bodies
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 22:19:27 +0000