Since last night, when the news about the Boston marathon bombings broke, I've read and heard countless expressions of either shock at the attacks or outrage that other terror attacks the same day didn't make that kind of news or elicit such expressions of heartbreak. Then people started talking about other countries that face terrorism routinely, and of course, all discussions, especially online, end up in ma-behen abuses and Indo-Pak issues. Always. But I just had a few things to say:
1. The Daily Mail article about 30 people being killed at a wedding in Afghanistan is a 2002 article that has been repackaged; please stop spreading the rumour that it happened yesterday.
2. I can understand criticizing the media for not giving enough coverage to other terror attacks that actually did take place yesterday (notably in Iraq) – the media is supposed to be objective and fair and all that. But please stop judging people for expressing their shock at what happened in Boston. For one thing, while both events are equally tragic, both are not equally shocking in the strictest sense of the word. Attacks on a super high-profile, globally watched sporting event (with tight security measures in place) in a city that doesn’t face terrorism regularly are obviously more shocking, although not more tragic, than attacks in Iraq, a country that, sadly, faces more terrorism on a daily basis than many other places in the world. Also, posting/not posting something online is no indication of a person’s empathy or apathy.
3. Let’s just think of things that restore our faith, like the runners who crossed the finish line and continued to run – to hospitals to donate blood to the blast victims. These are things that matter, not which attack got more tweets/fb updates.
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