WARNING: This post will include graphic pictures.
In the last few years we saw more and more hashtags trending:
#BlackLivesMatter, #AllLivesMatter, #WhiteLivesMatter, #CopLivesMatter, some idiots tried to copy it to promote their products, #SnacksLivesMatter #BackPackLivesMatter, and some even disintegrated into shaming, #TooMuchChatter, #SwallowCumSplatter, sometimes borderline cruelty like #AmirGotFatter, and so on.
We also saw a rise in prayer hashtags:
#PrayForSyria, #PrayForIraq, #PrayForSudan, #PrayForDemiLovato, all of equal importance. Add in ones like #JesuisCharlie. The difference by the five is that the first three lasted hours barely, the 4th lasted a week and the last, well, it recently had another anniversary. Charlie Hebdo's aftermath was 2 million people marching in France, 40 of the world's leaders join them, international support and coverage, Facebook filters, and so on. We interacted, but still, just 6 months prior to that Iraq saw the Camp Speicher massacre, an event where ISIS attacked a military camp, killing any non-Sunni people Such as Shi'a and Christians, the totality of which reached 1700 people.
Not only that in preparation for this post, I went online to see how it compares to other massacres and deadly attacks in the 21st century, I found out that it doesn't. Not in terms of numbers, of course, since only 9/11 had claimed more lives and it has more victims than any of the other 9 ranked in any top 10 of worst massacres and attacks.
The fact of the matter is, Syria alone had an estimate death toll of 400,000 people since the beginning of its war. Fast forward to November the same, another attack occurs in France claiming the lives 140 people, even bigger support, 70 million people change the filters of their Facebook profile pictures and the hashtag #PrayForParis lasts for weeks. Same week 40 people die in Iraq while attending a funeral , 43 people died in Beirut, no one pats an eye.
Why is Arab lives worth so much less than that of European or American?
I am not talking globally, but even on Arab people basis. There were more Arabs interacting with France than attacks in their own countries. Why don't we care about Arab lives more lives in spite of the fact that deaths here claim higher number of lives? The lack of action is not even new, American president Clinton didn't move an inch when 800,000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda, Bush junior didn't blink as up to 500,000 people. Well, the answer for that is divided into two parts:
1- Plenty of Times, There's No One to Hate
This is an extremely cynical point about human beings nowadays but a lot of our support comes due to hatred of the perpetrators rather than the disaster itself. You don't even need to follow the news to know about explosion in Lebanon that became worldwide news after 160 Lebanese died and 6 thousands were injured.
Image Source
Support WERE shown, millions were donated, aids were sent, condemnations were given by presidents, France's president Emmanuel Macron even visited the country and met up with many including Lebanese and really Arab singing legend Fairuz and singing icon Majida El Roumi.
Image source, Macron with Fairuz
Image source, Macron with Majida Al Roumi
See? They do care!
Well, not to ruin a beautiful moment. But you don't even need to go past the trending hashtags on Twitter to know why. Few thousands tweets in number less than the number trending #PrayForLebanon lied a number two by the title of Hezbolah. Hezbolah were the cause of the explosion as they have stored their bombs and weapons in such populated area. Third and fourth lied two countries by the name of Iran and Turkey.
I am not going to discuss the validity or politics against the latter two. But a sad fact is, Lebanon and its deaths only mattered in the context of hating Hezbollah, Iran, and Turkey, whether or not that hatred is warranted isn't the topic of this post. Am I coming off too much of a cynic?
Well, we don't need to look fat past more than a month later where Sudan suffered a series of floods. The floods claimed the lives of 103 people, 100,000 homes were destroyed and 500,000 people were affected, most by becoming homeless. Sudan didn't even make it to trending pages in the Arab world, it was forgotten withing minutes that I personally thought it wasn't a big deal before revisiting it few days ago.
Sudan didn't have presidents tweeting about them, no Emmanuel Macron to visit their singers, no millions of people donating, no condemning, nothing. While the results are arguably worst in Sudan, after all we need to remember that Lebanon was hit in its rich area, no houses were destroyed beyond, matter of fact, most people returned to those homes within days, While in Sudan people were literally seeing their houses float around, the ones remaining beyond repair and beneath the water, and they are too poor to do anything about it.
Sudan's disaster had one major flaw preventing people from caring about it: No one to hate. Simply put, it was floods, are you going to condemn a flood? The are is geopolitically dead, the same reason why the Darfur massacres that happened there didn't matter as well. Beside atheist trying to prove a point about God, environmentalist pointing at global warming, and few antisemitic people blaming Israel somehow, Sudan's disaster is already forgotten. Hell, you might be a news follower and still missed it.
Even if we mention Camp Speicher massacre in relation to Charlie Hebdo, in the west it was about Islamic terrorism, a chance for some to pounce on Muslims. While Speicher was attacked by ISIS, a side we already agree almost unanimously to hate.
2- In Economical Terms: Arab Deaths are the Hyperinflation
Hyperinflation is an economical term describing the decreasing value of money, you might need to pay someone in MILLIONS of your currency for a head of lettuce. A westerner's death in comparison to that of an Arab is Bitcoin to Dogecoin.
When I mention Syria for example. Imagine your death, the end of your dreams, your devastated partner, your children becoming orphans, your mother's heartbreak, your father's pain, your sister's longing, your brother's depression, coworkers missing you, friends forgetting for a second you are dead and call you only to remember. All of that and more, now multiply by 400,000. Can you feel all of that?
Most likely you don't because you can't, this problem is well known to scientist. It is well proven that your stimulus doesn't increase when you know 2 people died instead of one. Basically if you gave a hoot about someone's death, you won't be giving two hoots for the death two, matter of the fact, you might even give less of one hoot. Many experiments in psychology prove so.
Weber and Gustave Fechner were trying to tell how people could know the difference between weights, sounds, and all senses.
What does this even mean?
It means basically, if I tell you that 99 people died in an explosion, it won't matter if you find out that in fact it was 100 people who died. Even though that one is a human life with dreams, family, friends, life, children, and wife. For example, yesterday was the 19th anniversary of 9/11, an attack that claimed the souls of 1477 people, except that it didn't and it has in fact claimed the lives of 2977 people,more than twice the number and it probably didn't matter to you.
Simply put, you care more about an American life than you do Arab, the rest is just variables. 9/11 could have claimed the lives of 107 and it would have remained just as much of a disaster Speicher could have led to the death of 24 thousand people and it would have been the same. Well, that example is exaggerated.
An experiment was inducted where more people opted to save 9000 people out of 15,000 people more than those who opted to save 100,000 people out of 290,000. In this case, the live of one person out of the 290,000 is worth less than that out of the 15,000.
The scarcity principle tells us that the reason we care more about the death of a western more than that of an Arab, African, Asian, etc.. is because simply Westerners die at a lower rate. We are used to 7 people dying in Iraq, 19 people killed in Syria, 13 people dying in Egypt, those are things we are used to. This not something that some people have or feel. Studies proved that most people see deaths from that perspective.
Are there any positives to this?
Yes.
What Charities Learned from That
Charities have come so far since the days of throwing stats at you and expecting you to donate. Now charities play on the scarcity principle, instead of showing a hundred thousand children starving to death, they will tell you the story of one, one person with whom you can sympathize and love. A hundred thousands of people are too much for your emotional state of mind comprehend.
Studies show if given the option lots of people would donate for a little girl named Katy, almost as much for a little boy named Randy, but would pay half for both. People interact more with a person than they do numbers. This means that if you show stories of two people rather than one you would get donated to less, not to mention thousands.
Studies have confirmed that advertising for charity starring one girl brought in better result than that mentioning a hundred thousand starving child in Ethiopia. Even animals, in 2001 after certain illness affecting cattle, millions of animals were slaughtered. Human Rights Watch condemned along with the press uselessly, however, a story of a 12 days old calf was shared prompting outrage that resulted in the U.K stopping the slaughter.
In Summary
While it shouldn't, hatred of something seems to be a driving motive for us to express sympathy, donate, and help a certain country over another. With the help of press and media going along with politically motivated politicians, the life of one population is worth way less than another.
Also, unfortunately, people are more likely to help based on one story, a story of one person might prompt them to donate millions while a million stories might not lead to one dollar donated.
This post wasn't written to defend or condemn any country, entity, or person. But rather an explanation of a phenomena that will hopefully make you smarter in presenting your and more aware when presented one.
Please upvote, share, and comment your opinion down below and follow me for more posts. Such as this one where I talk about the power of words and propose a project that I believe is worth your support.
Also don't forget to check the sources below.
_Sources:
1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6, and 7
_