The fuss is on Virginia Tech — but why?

Recently the hype has been on regarding the VTech killings in America. There have been loads of articles, outpourings of sympathy, fingers pointed everywhere, and yadda yadda yadda.

But the only first decent editorial that I’ve read on the Virginia Tech massacre so far is from 19ActionNews.com : http://www.woio.com/Global/story.asp?S=6387732. Why do I like it, you ask? Because it tells us to just grieve and stop blaming. Because it doesn’t try to analyse, place more importance on this event, or express dramatic horror at the figures. Because it just sympathises, then moves on.

….

To be honest, I’m sick of all the fuss that’s going up because of what I see as being caused by the nature of the victims’ nationality.

Don’t flame me for this. I mean, when you’re reading so many other statistics and you know that so many avoidable deaths are happening all over the world that are NOT being reported on, you just get jaded and disillusioned, and you get tired.

The page Informed Comment (Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion) posted even larger death numbers on the top of its page the last time I looked at it. Yesterday, Kerbala, ‘one of Iraq’s best protected cities because of its holy status’, had 170 deaths. One hundred and seventy? That’s way more than the 33 that were killed in VTech. Yet how much will this episode be discussed? How much sympathy will be shown towards the Iraqians?

A professor from UMich stated the following on Think Progress: Remember that we’re all concerned, as we should be, about these events at Virginia Tech today. In Iraq this is a daily event. Imagine how horrible it would be if this kind of massacre were occurring every single day. And the people of Iraq feel that either the Americans are not stopping it or they’re actually causing it.

Yes, Iraqians are being killed en mass, and not only the civilians but the teachers are being targeted. But is there any big news-coverings of that on our papers? Are editorials being put up, and letters being written in the bulk, and outflowings of pity and words of condolences to the survivors or urges for better security for Iraqian educators?

No.

Let’s not forget to progress on to thinking about Africa. So many millions dying every year due to avoidable reasons and human apathy.

…Where are the articles on that??

A fellow, Nic, gives all a pretty good piece of his mind on the subject in his blogpost, One Day of Silence for the USA, How Many for Africa?, and I have to say that I agree with him.

There are so many others suffering NOW in the PRESENT, even as we look BACK at the PAST. Why can’t we just try to save those that we CAN save, and stop pointing the fingers at those who caused the horrors of the past? We can’t undo what has happened and stop the milk from being spilt, but we can reach out a hand and drag the flailing swimmer to safety, or give a hand to the weak.

Are some people somehow more important than others, that their deaths have to be acknowledged and others’ don’t? Are some people’s misfortunes somehow easier to overlook, because they are in a country where misfortune seems more widespread?

I think not.

Australia fights a lot for human rights. Why can’t those rights apply to all?