Monday, 12 January 2015 Living in a world of terror By: Sirka Amaambo A must read!! WAKE UP AFRICA The news headlines and TV channels were recently flooded with news about the terror attacks that took place in Paris. All of Europe is up in arms as they show their support to the French by denouncing terrorism. This is a very sad time in our history. Its as if every time I switch on the TV, a plane has disappeared, suicide bombers somewhere in the Middle East or Nigeria killed people, riots, you name it. Well when this attack happened, journalists and even the general public started posting je suis Charlie on their social media sites. Some even highlighted the power of the pen. All human life is very important and should matter. However, I am really bothered. How many people are dying daily around the world and how much did the world speak out about it? Not so long ago, Ebola broke out in West Africa. To date, the virus has killed over 21 thousand people. Now the other side of this story is that WHO was informed of the outbreak earlier in the year but only reacted in August. And then we had the case of all if not most of the Europeans who contracted the virus being cured of the deadly virus while thousands of Africans continued to die mercilessly because the drug was in its trial period. Fast forward to today. The attacks in Paris took place on 7 January and by 12 January, heads of states as well as millions stood up against the attacks. On the same day, we started hearing reports about one of the deadliest attacks by Boko Haram in Nigeria where about 2000 people were brutally murdered. Even though social media was a buzz with the news, most of the international news outlets ignored Nigeria (or rather mentioned the attack in passing) and continued focussing on the terror attack in Paris. Now ask yourself how many French corpses we saw on TV and social media after the shooting. Meanwhile, to the few who were reporting on Boko Haram, African bodies were displayed for all to see as they lay in pools of blood. Whatever happened to respecting human dignity and human rights? Also, has anyone ever considered the fact that any sadistic person can wear all black, storm into a place and start shooting people while screaming Allahu Akbar? That way, the police look for Muslim extremists and make it about religion? What if the shooters had screamed God Bless while shooting? Then they become Christian extremists? How about screaming I like penis? Then they become crazy homos sending the police on a homo chase? Im trying not to ramble here. All I want is attention to African lives. And to the African media personalities who feel African issues arent being reported enough on, isnt it then up to us to set the agenda on our continent? The time to act is now. African states should invest more in health research and document it for our people. We need to report more about what is happening on our continent. Let us find our own solutions. I am not saying that we should ignore what is happening outside, I am saying we need to prioritise because clearly, African issues are not trending anywhere else.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 10:17:30 +0000
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