August 10, 2013

A Human's Worth


"Humans' lives are not of the same worth," declared my mom, grabbing another piece of stir-fried broccoli with her wooden chopsticks.

We were sitting around the dinner table, listening to CBS News when the anchor quickly mentioned a suicide car bombing that killed 53 people in Iraq. The news seemed to have left his thought as quickly as it had came out of his mouth. The rest of the supper was a blur; only the remnants of my mom's comment swarmed in my mind.

That was several weeks ago. And yet I cannot forget that day when 53 people were killed in a bombing, and how the brief mention of it was quickly overshadowed by a news report of more value, but lesser importance. If this were to happen in a developed country like the U.S.A. or Canada, it would be on the national headlines, even international ones, for several days in a row. They would have short biographies of the injured and deceased affected by the incident, and segments where experts would analyze the event over and over.

Actually, it wasn't the way-too-brief report on the news regarding that suicide car bombing that thoroughly vexed me. It was the ignorance of social media. If you engage in social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, you probably came across a few people posting a message that said "Pray for Boston", during the time following the Boston Marathon Bombing. And that was very respectful, being emotionally engaged to an event that shook the whole nation. But those people completely missed the mark. Haven't they ever looked at the world properly? Looked at Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and so many other countries in the midst of turmoil? They should know that these countries experience bombings every day of great fatality. But when has someone ever posted to their Facebook page a message saying "Pray for Syria", or "Iraq Strong"? If there are people who do it, I have yet to have encounter one of them.


There are, of course, several cultural differences underlying bombings in a First World Country compared to one in a Third World Country. The chances are much slimmer to happen in the former, and when it does, it spreads shockwaves through the whole nation. In a Third World country, bombings are apart of everyday life, just a reminder of the violence that infests its society. Yet, there shouldn't be any differences in how we honour those who have perished in such an incident. If people produce shirts and bracelets with the message of support, "Boston Strong", shouldn't they make them with "Syria Strong" too?

One might call this unfair because of course we First World people would be more concerned about bombings that happen in our territory compared to those that detonate miles and miles away from us. But these days, with social media, there is no difference concerning where a tragic event occurs. We are now connected to the world better than ever before,  linked with a force stronger than any of us. With social media, we can practically experience, live in the events happening in another country.

I might have only focused on bombings throughout this whole post, but this goes beyond the grenades. It's the shootings, the flooding, the forest fires, the poverty. The things we choose to look at, but never beyond the borders of our nation. An unconscious ignorance.

This post will not change anything big. People will continue to mourn profusely next time a bombing occurs in a developed country, sending their prayers through social media. Bombings in country of war will still be reported the briefest way possible. But I hope this post will change a few people. On how they view the world. And maybe these people (you, perhaps) can help spread this important message: that we live as one. And maybe one day every human's life will be of the same worth.

14 comments:

  1. Beautiful post Grace. I agree that as humans it's natural for us to care or post more about what happens to those in relative proximity to us, but it's important that we take into account other areas as well. With expanding social media we should strive to do so.

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    1. Thank you Thomas! And yes, it's good that we care about the people around us, but like you said, we should still be considerate of everybody around the world!

      Thanks for reading my post and leaving a lovely comment, Thomas!

      -Grace :)

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  2. I understand what you mean. People naturally care more about what happens in their home country. Great post sending out a great message.

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    1. Thank you Danielle, I'm glad you liked it!

      -Grace :)

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  3. Amazing post, Grace. You always seem to think up the most interesting ideas and write about them in the most thoughtful ways :)

    It's true that people seem to care more about what is happening in their own part of the world. I myself am usually like that. But it is also true that if an event causes deaths or breaks a human life, it should be payed attention to, no matter where it happened.

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    1. Thank you very much, Lottie! And I appreciate your honesty; although we might not want to admit it sometimes, most of us care with more value about the people that surrounds us. But it is nice to know you don't live in ignorance of that!

      Thanks for reading my post and leaving a lovely comment, Lottie!

      -Grace :)

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  4. Your mom is an amazing person to quote from. Sorry that was super random. XD But your post is an inspiration. When there are bigger amounts of deaths at the same time it hits everyone the worst, but even with just one person, it's still hits us bad. Sometimes, it's paid attention to but then a few months pass and then people forget and they want to forget and forgive and move on with their lives. Because humanity is like that. And that's a terrible flaw we all have.

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    1. Indeed, humanity has some great and terrible flaws. But I think we can always learn from them, and try to be better people. And thanks Delaney, I'm so glad you found this post inspirational!

      Thanks for reading my post and leaving an awesome comment, Delaney!

      -Grace :)

      P.S. My mom is overjoyed by the fact that her quotes are apparently amazing. >o<

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    2. I just read your comment and I just had to come and say HOPE YOU DID AWESOME AND KICKED BOOTY ON THAT VIOLIN EXAM! ♪ ♬ ヾ(´︶`♡)ノ ♬ ♪

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    3. Aha thanks so much for the thought Delaney! XD I think I did pretty good, so I hope that counts as kicking butt!

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  5. This is such a beautiful post, Grace. I've thought about it myself on numerous ocassions and it's just so horrible that people the world over aren't nationally mourned as strongly as they are if they are from our own part country, like Lottie said.
    Here in Australia there wasn't so much coverage of the Boston bombing as there was in the US, and I'm sure it works vice versa. Interesting to see whether news broardcasts in other countries focus on our news quite as much as they do they're own, if that's just something that happens the world over.

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    1. Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Romi! It's interesting that in Australia you see it in a different perspective- that the news of the Boston Bombing wasn't broadcasted as much.

      Thank you for reading my post Romi, I appreciate it so much!

      -Grace :)

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Hi! If you are here, I'm assuming that you've just read my post. If yes, don't hesitate on leaving a quick comment, I truly do appreciate each and every single one of them!

-Grace :)

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