“Je suis Lahore” anyone? No? I see, the victims are “only” Pakistanis…
Sorry when I sound like a cynic, but this racism of the kindly-hearted that shows cheap solidarity only when the bomb explodes in our neighbourhood and when the victims belong to “us”, and keeps quiet when the killed, wounded and mutilated victims are for reasons of race, religion, or poverty not part of the species that deserves our sympathy or humanity, makes me want to throw up.
Same story like last year when all you could hear after the Paris bombing was a deafening silence about all the other similar terrorist attacks at almost exactly the same time in other parts of the world where the victims weren’t “our” people and therefore didn’t deserve any sign of solidarity or even to be mentioned as it seems.
I wonder what our so-called humanism is worth, when we are willing to apply it only to those who share a similar race, culture and social status with us. –
The answer is obvious.
© Thomas Hübner and mytwostotinki.com, 2014-6. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without expressed and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Thomas Hübner and mytwostotinki.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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It is encouraging to see that Pakistan is not entirely ignored in the light of this tragedy, but my cynical inner voice can’t help but wonder if the fact that these were Christians who were targeted has charged the response. After all, this is not the first attack to rock this country in the recent months. Until it is no longer possible to overlook the ongoing violence in the Middle East and Africa (or elsewhere) that continues to take its toll and the simmering tensions just barely below the surface, “humanism” will still be confined to only those particular “humans” in whom we see ourselves.
You are right, Joseph. What makes me sad in this context is the rise of populism and xenophobia in many European countries these days that is directed indiscriminately against all refugees and migrants, no matter where they come from, no matter how much they have suffered, no matter that “the West” is directly responsible for the turmoil in which big regions of the world are nowadays.
A very similar comment in my newspaper today – we didn’t see any banners saying “Je suis Homs” either. i agree with Joseph Schreiber about what humanism means for us. In the case of Charlie Hebdo there was also the glamour attached to writers and artists – if someone went in and shot workers in an abbatoir I wonder if people would be in the streets proclaiming “Je suis carnivore” or something similar.
Thank you, Gert – it is not so easy not to become a cynic these days…