I come from a privileged Francophone community in Lebanon. This has meant that I’ve always seen France as my second home. The streets of Paris are as familiar to me as the streets of Beirut. I was just in Paris a few days ago.
These have been two horrible nights. The first took the lives of over 40 in Beirut, the second took the lives of over 100 in Paris.
It also seems clear to me that to the world, my people’s deaths in Beirut do not matter as much as my other people’s deaths in Paris.
‘We’ don’t get a safe button on Facebook. ‘We’ don’t get late night statements from the most powerful men and women alive and millions of online users.
‘We’ don’t change policies which will affect the lives of countless innocent refugees.
This could not be clearer.
I say this with no resentment whatsoever, just sadness.
It’s a hard thing to realize that for all that was said, for all the rhetoric of progressive thought that we have managed to create as a seemingly united human voice, most of us, most of us members of this curious species, are still excluded from the dominant concerns of the ‘world’.
And I know that by ‘world’, I am myself excluding most of the world. Because that’s how power structures work.
I do not matter.
My ‘body’ does not matter to the ‘world’.
If I die, it won’t make a difference.
Again, I say this with no resentment.
That statement is merely a fact. It is a ‘political’ fact, true, but a fact nonetheless.
Maybe I should have some resentment, but I’m too tired. It’s a heavy thing to realize.
I know that I’m privileged enough that when I do die, I will be remembered by friends and loved ones. Maybe this blog and an online presence might even gather some thoughts by people around the world. That’s the beauty of the internet. And even that is an out of reach privilege to too many.
But never before have I understood what Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote when he spoke of the Black Body in America. I think there is a story to be told with the Arab Body as well. The Native American Body. The Indigenous Body. The Latin American Body. The Indian Body. The Kurdish Body. The Pakistani Body. The Chinese Body. And so many other bodies.
The Human Body is not one. It sure feels that it should be by now. Maybe that in itself is an illusion. But maybe it’s an illusion worth preserving because I don’t know what sort of world we’d be living in if it stays an illusion.
Some bodies are global, but most bodies are local, regional, ‘ethnic’.
My thoughts are with all the victims of today’s horrific attacks, and my thoughts are with all those who will suffer serious discrimination as a result of the actions of a few mass murderers and the failure of humanity’s imagination to see itself as a unified entity.
My only hope is that we can be strong enough to generate the opposite response to what these criminals intended. I want to be optimistic enough to say that we’re getting there, wherever ‘there’ might be.
We need to talk about these things. We need to talk about Race. We just have to.
Hummus For Thought 
All people are created equal, but some are more equal than others. This is a very well-written piece. It reflects the thoughts of so many of us, who are feeling the ‘bite.’ I live in Beirut and my daughter and her husband live in Paris. These two days have been really horrific to us. Please stay safe.
What is Parseltongue?
Parseltongue is the language of serpents and those who can converse with them. ( Harry Potter Pun )
Harry could speak Parseltongue for instance.
Voldemort too.
Parseltongue is the language of serpents and those who can converse with them.
Harry could speak Parseltongue for instance.
So did Voldemort.
AOl had a font called Parseltongue
Joey – this is so touching. And you are wrong…I feel horrified at the bombings in Lebanon. I didn’t forget or disregard it. I am not an important person or a world leader, I live on the other side of the world (USA) and I care, very much. Lebanon have opened its doors to refugees and fight ISIS at its front door with little help or acknowledgement from the West (political correctness at its worst) and you have to take crap from Israel for just defending your country – do not get me started about Israel and what my government does for them with my tax dollars and my vote, all done without my consent, makes my blood pressure rise. Ta-Nehisi Coates is right, some bodies matter more than others. But all people matter to me. I hope you feel my love and prayers. Lebanon and Syria are some of the places I want to visit, and I hope I still can in my lifetime.
support is always welcome, thank you for your thoughts. I wish people in ur part of the world share these same thoughts, away from mainstream media.
I stayed up really late last night to make sure all my French friends were safe, so I don’t feel coherent enough to argue the many ways in which your article is wrong (Paris’s size and demographics alone, not to mention the way the attacks were ongoing, warrant a safe button). It’s just so very unkind on the morning of this terrible Friday (and on a personal note, I remember French outlets covering Beirut attacks, and my French friends and acquaintances keep texting me and messaging me every time a bomb went off in Beirut).
I am a British man, one of those pure white of British descent, born into a society blessed with hard earned peace and prosperity. Your article needs must have a response from someone of the privileged west I feel. You are absolutely right in all you say, but not necessarily for the right reasons. It is absolutely true that the response to the attacks in Paris have provoked significantly more response than those in Beirut, and such has been true of tragedies like this for many years. It is absolutely true that this is appalling and unjust. However, please don’t believe for a moment that it is because the people of our societies in the west do not care as much about you as those from our own. The western media is bigoted, politically biased and obscene in its power and we have been at the mercy of them since the advent of the Internet and the profligation of such “news”. They in our unelected media, ran largely by Americans and bizarrely an Australian, do not in any way reflect the beliefs or convictions of the public at large here. The power they wield these days with tools such as Facebook, Twitter and 24 hour rolling news is terrifying for us, as you have pointed out it even has the power to change governmental policies. This is the war we fight in the west, to regain control of the dialogue and stop these few powerful organisations from speaking for all of us. Please believe that the vast majority of Western people, in Britain at least, I am unqualified to speak for anyone else, stand with you in these terrible times, and would do whatever we could to help were there anything we could do beyond that we already are. “The World”, our white western society is not so cruel as the media would paint us and we stand with you in grief for all those who have lost their lives to these despicable murderers, and long for a peaceful world for all mankind just as you do. Race and colour are irrelevant, we really are all the same, those of us who have had the chance to travel extensively will know that despite the media insistence on segregating us. IS use lies and manipulation to achieve their goals, seperating brothers and sowing dissent, the western media work on much the same principle and that in itself should be indication of how dangerous they are. We must not let them succeed on any level, we, humanity, are united in our desire for peace, and ever shall be. I for one stand with you, and I know in this I am not alone.
Amen. You are so right, the news media is wicked. CNN broadcasted a ‘blip’ about Beirut bombings and they will cover the Paris attacks for weeks and months.
yes! mainstream media has taken over and news are being sorted and organized to highly manipulate the public.
Oh – thank you for saying this! First of all, I heartily concur with all you say about how people in the West care. I’m in Nova Scotia, Canada and you should have seen my facebook feed yesterday with all the prayers and concern for people in BOTH places – it was heartfelt and genuine. People were so upset/ devastated/concerned and full of empathy. And about the press, too – a horrendous problem that is making misunderstanding far worse. We in Canada are fighting the same battles with corporate owners of the press. More and more, I’m relying on the alternate press on the internet for the real news.
One friend made a good point when someone raised this issue (with regret and a sense of the injustice). The friend said it wasn’t that people didn’t care; it was that Beirut is less familiar. People identify with what is familiar. Once, long ago, after just moving here, I asked a neighbour once if she had grown up here. “No, she said, I grew up 3 miles down the road.” !!! We had just returned from living in India and this was unbelievable to me. In Nova Scotia even people from different parts of Canada are considered different, considered “from away” – and ignored, basically. All the same colour, ethnic background – but “from away’.
Travel is one answer, I think, but travel is too expensive for many. As much as is possible though, those in power need to have lived elsewhere, I think – so they realize what we have understood – that under the surface of skin and nation, people have so much in common. Both in India and France, I stayed with people who were like second families to me. A three day stopover in Beirut and a friend in Cairo and Bahrain brings your part of the world very much into my consciousness.
Know that many of us here care – even the people who haven’t been out of Nova Scotia. I am so deeply sorry for this terrible tragedy and the deep devastation for your country.
Do we not bear responsibility for the press? Do they not look to us for cues on how to “handle” us? It is not that it’s just the mega-rich pulling the puppet strings, it’s that the media can not help but be a mirror (albeit, a manipulated mirror, but perhaps that’s always the case with mirrors) — and, the media mirror shows us as stratified, not unified, by a our differences. Politicians and the media play on division — however, we are the ones who go along with it, are even part of the mirror that shows us to be indifferent and only stirred by those just like ourselves. It is used in that ways on different levels, reflected back on us. Reinforcing the lie of selfishness and indifference to “the other”.
WE ARE STANDING. I am from Paris. I live in the west of the city, attacks were in the east, but I heard sirens all night long. I was so sad for Beyrouth. Today it’s difficult for me to think, to speak, impossible to understand. Thanks Joey for you empathy. We continue!
“I come from a privileged Francophone community in Lebanon. This has meant that I’ve always seen France as my second home.”
*just starts banging head on the wall*
I can relate to most things you say. Lebanon is one of my favourite countries in the world and I feel the pain to see it destructed by terrorism. I feel close to France by being francophone as you are and I can feel the same pain.
But sadly I think that we should stop looking for a reason or an attachment to somewhere to care. We should stay united and care for the human race!
Our leaders are failing to achieve this politically so WE, the people, must do it!
Well put, omaro2266. We are all humans on the face of the Earth, all going along, facing the exact same things in life.
And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they shall hammer their plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. Isaiah 2:4
I think it is a natural human condition to be concerned about the things that are closer to one’s own little world. The more one can relate to an incident, the closer it hits home. A bombing in Beirut doesn’t spark the anxiety that, “it could happen here” for many in the West. Does this make it right to follow these closer to home stories more than others that are equally as bad? I guess that depends on one’s underlying reasons for following the news – reasons most of us never bother to try to understand.
Agreed.
Nobody will know the names of the victims in Paris… only those who knew them. They are ‘not important’. WHAT happened is important. in a country which is supposed to be safe to live in.
Terror attacks happen daily in Nigeria by Boko Haram, thousands of women are raped daily in Congo and India, terror attacks in the Middle East, the war is still ongoing in Ukraine. None of these are covered by the main news channels.
In fact if I don’t watch US news, I don’t know many things which are happening there.
Your article scares me.
Thank you for this eloquent piece.
I completely agree with you that this is unfair and sickening. The same happened in January when attacks killed 17 people in Paris. Meanwhile, hundreds were dying in attacks in the DRC, countless more maimed and raped, yet the world turned a blind eye and the country’s own president was slow to respond.
I’m not really sure it’s about race though. In my opinion, it’s more about ignorance. These kinds of attacks are unusual in France. War rages far away from it. And because France is one of the world’s top tourist destinations, everyone knows about it, loves it and has a friend or cousin who spent a holiday there, lives there or went on an exchange program there. Paris is the wonderland where everything is beautiful, all the ladies strut around in Chanel purses and have lunch over Bordeaux and ratatouille. But Lebanon – and this is where this comment becomes politically incorrect – is a different story. Lebanon is not a world power in the way France is. People don’t relate as much to the Lebanese because they don’t really know Lebanon as much. Many have never been there and unfortunately many wouldn’t even know where to place it on a map (ignorance sometimes knows no bounds – I’ve been asked several times if we have electricity in France, and I also know of people who thought Africa was a country… what can I say.) Lebanon is a politically tense country in a part of the world that is up in flames, so in people’s mind it “makes sense” that there should be attacks “over there” and that people die. The “Middle East”? People lump it all together and assume that it’s one big mess where people die sometimes and that’s the way it is. Thankfully, no-one they know lives there. Sort of like when Syrians or Congolese are being blown up – it’s sad, but in a way, inevitable. And, especially if they know no-one there, they don’t feel concerned. (I obviously don’t condone this.)
But Paris – capital of a permanent member of the UN security council and world’s 6th biggest economy, former colonial power, cultural exporter and setting of some of the world’s favorite movies – if something blows up there, it could happen anywhere. It could happen to you and your family, no matter where you live. People aren’t used to that thought. And it comes in as a shock.
Politically correct or not, your sentiments are close to the truth. The ‘Middle East’ is seen as this morass of destruction, war, hatred, sectarianism, or as an American would say ‘a hot mess’, a place no one wants to touch it with a 10 foot pole. There’s a ‘let them sort out their own mess’ mentality. Never mind the fact the Middle East is a large area with very diverse demographics, ethnicities, religions, ways of life which existed before the ‘West’ was even a thought (forget being a world power). What’s more, these diverse groups of people, more or less, in intermittent history, lived rather peacefully together until recent history.
Human beings are animals, the body of any human holds the same inherent meaning as that of the carcass of a cockroach. Except when we ascribe meaning to them. You ascribe more meaning, or the same meaning, to your own people, your tribe. It is human nature. It is not one group deciding that their “bodies” mean more than others, but simply ascribing the same meaning they give to their own bodies to others in their Group. As you yourself said, the attacks in Paris struck you because of your Francophone roots. Many in the Arab World, who do not have such roots, do not ascribe the same meaning to the victims. The Coates example is distinct, since African Americans are part of the fabric of American society, they should be considered part of the same tribe, and yet, too often, are not. Not to mention the fact that Arabs are Caucasians, so I find that comparison without merit, but I won’t go too much into detail concerning that here (Arabs enslaved Africans for years so we really shouldn’t go too far into victimizing Arabs, which your post tries much too hard to do.)
To accuse the world, or the French, or Europe to caring more about the attacks in Paris, which were larger, killed more, and, regrettably happened in a part of the world in which terror is not a part of every day life, is, to me, to accuse someone of caring more about their own family member’s death rather than yours.
To all the commenters responding to this article by saying stuff like: “this doesnt happen in Paris, so it’s unusual and that’s why people are outraged more” or “it could happen to you or me” OR “to accuse someone of caring more about their own family member’s death rather than yours”
THINK ABOUT WHY this is the case, please. 😦 Think about the racist basis for why a country can be terrorized and hurt so much and nobody cares because it’s just “how things usually are”; think about the valuation of lives in this situation. Think about the terrible precedent of only caring for those who you can see yourself in.
I literally can’t even. Thank you so much for writing this Joey– your words are beautiful. Sending love from Berkeley, CA.
Mika – I’m just giving an explanation as to why I think people’s death in Beirut seems to count less than in Paris. I do NOT condone this behavior. I am not at all saying that people are right or even justified to care less. It is sickening and unfair and cruel. It is sickening that when there are far deadlier massacres in the Congo or in Myanmar, it barely makes the news. It is sickening that Europeans take 4 years (!) to notice that there are millions of Syrian refugees, just because they happened to stumble upon a picture of one of the countless drowned 3 year-olds. Europeans used to not care about the refugees, and then when they realized that war could happen to their own 3-year olds, many of them opened their doors and took people in. People don’t feel concerned. They care about their relatives and friends, the rest is kind of a blur. And if they can turn a blind eye to some of the suffering from “the blur”, they’ll do it, because frankly it’s too painful to deal with the whole world’s suffering.
I don’t think that all the millions of people who sent their good thoughts to Paris and not to Beirut were racists. I think that Paris had more of a face to them than Beirut. Which, if you think of it, is just as bad.
Anyway, if it wasn’t clear, my thoughts go to all the victims of terrorism, their families, and also all the injured who are still hanging in there – In Paris, Beirut, Baghdad, Islamabad, and pretty much everywhere in the world.
This is sad, but true. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News and commented:
Some bodies are global, but most bodies are local, regional, ‘ethnic’.
My thoughts are with all the victims of today’s horrific attacks, and my thoughts are with all those who will suffer serious discrimination as a result of the actions of a few mass murderers and the failure of humanity’s imagination to see itself as a unified entity.
My only hope is that we can be strong enough to generate the opposite response to what these criminals intended. I want to be optimistic enough to say that we’re getting there, wherever ‘there’ might be.
We need to talk about these things. We need to talk about Race. We just have to
Beautiful. And sad.
Excellent post, brother. You have hit the nail squarely on the head, and I can only share/echo your sadness at what humanity COULD be, if only enough of us were able to see as clearly as you, and others like us. Another sad part of the need for change is this: in order to remove those from power those who seize it, one must, to some degree, become LIKE those predators. Only when enough people realize the power they have to CHOOSE whether or not to give away their own power to those predators, will we be able to laugh them out of power… And, to my mind, laughter/ridicule is the best they deserve, for is it no truly pathetic to base one’s entire life on delusions, and self-interest? The Universe has so much more to offer to those who allow themselves to get past their fear of it, to understand. Perhaps that is the key; we must figure out how to make the predator class understand themselves, and remove the fear which drives them to such insane treatment of their fellow creatures…
The question is how to accomplish that, and I wish I knew that answer…
gigoid, the dubious
The world being global has happened in so short a time. Our minds as humans, most probably function more as families, or communities..but Lord forbid you tell my fellow Americans community and communism have a word base in common..I woke up & kept my radio off today, fearing I’d hear 24/7 about the Paris bombings, which I couldn’t bear to hear again this morning…..I was hoping to get to friends’ before my day started, or a “prayer group” or something, to pray for our world, after last night. However, my bigger fear has come true. I’m here in America, and our most advertised as “neutral” radio station, NPR, is broadcasting radio programs as if nothing happened last night….very different than our 9/11 attack…cOur country won’t stop the progression of consumerism and holiday purchasing here in the US for fear some bigwig’s stock portfolio might take a financial plunge. The world keeps spinning…try not to fall off. Save yourself. Sad to be an American today, because the WHOLE WORLD should be mourning Paris today, even if it didn’t mourn Beirut 40 years ago. America = money and ONLY money…even for we Americans who live here in America. I mourn for Paris. I mourn for the World….a Very Sad and Apologetic American.
This is really sad and I don’t deny the fact that the beheaded Hezareh Afgans, the bloodshed in Ankara and the tragedy in Beirut received less attention from the media, politicians and us Facebook users but I firmly believe it is not because the lives of certain people matter more. Every single life matters, even that of a brainwashed Jihadist! The reason for such an overwhelming response to Paris tragedy has probably something to with the sad fact that we hear so much tragic news from the Middle East where I am from that somehow on the surface we get desensitized to it. Too many hostages taken, tortured, beheaded; so many terror attacks, so much election fraud, so manny innocent kids orphaned, killed, raped. And it does make you cry and cringe every single time but you are too numb, too depressed, too shaken to react overwhelmingly. With Paris, it is unprecedented. It’s not expected. It’s as if it is the very first time we’ve heard ISIS. My heart is in Beirut, Ankara, Kabul, Paris, Iraq, Iran, US, Syria. It’s so torn I might not be able to react supportively enought the next time ruthless psychopathic hatred hits humanity!
thank you for a very sane comment…
Here is a quote from one of Rumi’s poems:
Why think thus O men of piety
I have returned to sobriety
I am neither a Moslem nor a Hindu
I am not Christian, Zoroastrian, nor Jew
I am neither of the West nor the East
Not of the ocean, nor an earthly beast
I am neither a natural wonder
Nor from the stars yonder
Neither flesh of dust, nor wind inspire
Nor water in veins, nor made of fire
I am neither an earthly carpet, nor gems terrestrial
Nor am I confined to Creation, nor the Throne Celestial
Not of ancient promises, nor of future prophecy
Not of hellish anguish, nor of paradisic ecstasy
Neither the progeny of Adam, nor Eve
Nor of the world of heavenly make-believe
My place is the no-place
My image is without face
Neither of body nor the soul
I am of the Divine Whole.
I eliminated duality with joyous laughter
Saw the unity of here and the hereafter
Unity is what I sing, unity is what I speak
Unity is what I know, unity is what I seek
Thank you for writing this, for reaching out, for pointing out both our ‘individual’ irrelevance as a body that doesn’t matter on some level, but does on another. Your blog has people talking, so you…one person, has made a difference. Maybe I won’t ever know you face to face; or be able to help all those in Beirut, Paris, Yemen, etc. etc. etc, but I am glad you are here, on this planet, and connecting us.
I believe we are the HUMAN race. Let’s find our commonalities not our divides. divides that are filled with hate and where those who want power divide the many for their ability to control. The only person you can control is yourself…Please, let’s all decide to open our hearts and find our humanity towards one another. strive to make the whole world a better place, all of us can eat, be healthy, care for the planet that feeds us if we come together to help each other.
I am greatly privileged to be white and from the west in terms of growing up with food, safety, education, etc. So, I don’t pretend to know what it is like to be put into the category of being ‘the other’ or to be marginalized in any way that wasn’t due to my own personal choices to be an ‘outsider’, always with the ability to escape scrutiny should I choose to. I think the onus is on the likes of me to extend a hand, to know you are my brothers and sisters and we ALL deserve peace, rights, understanding, food, shelter…..LOVE!
Sending the love I have to anyone who will have it.
I’m an American living in the UK and most of the people I am close to feel devastated about what is going on in Lebanon. We post about refugee issues to educate others, and we sign and share petitions to our governments. We are not the media, we are not the politicians, but we are regular people whose hearts break over the war going on inside of Lebanon.
❤
Reblogged this on jetude.
I am a 74-year-old American woman who, in the words of Ta-nahisi Coates, thinks she is white. To me your post is a beautiful wise open-hearted and heart-opening piece of writing. I could quote every sentence back to you as the sentence that moved me most. This week I read Coates’ “Between the World and Me” and then tried to persuade everyone I know to read it too. . .with the hope that we could talk about it to each other. Today I will send your blog post to my friends through the amazing power of what sometimes really is a web that connects. I so agree: “We need to talk about these things. We just have to.” Deep gratitude for offering your thoughtful words to the discussion.
Thank you Anita. It is a wonderful book that should be required reading everywhere.
Reblogged this on Strike Anywhere.
The world sees this as france didnt ask for this so we sympathise. But lebanon did because this is what muslims do and we have no sympathy. Because this is normal in the muslim world, we dont care because we think you dont care. We say this because we expect muslims to rise up and stop this, actually destroy these vile monsters. But we also know you deserve it because destroying isil isnt enough. Your father, your uncle, your sister who has even the slightest sympathy for anything isil does e.g supports throwing gay men off buildings, must also be eradicated. But we know you will not and thus you deserve what you get. That is the mindset of the west and while it makes no sense, the mindset of the east is equally baffling.
Thank you so much for this touching text. Could you publish a French version of it?
I am French, living abroad, and what you wrote represent exactly the feeling I have about how the world is reacting to the attacks. I think it would be crucial to spread these thoughts among French people at the moment… so please, try to publish it in French too.
Please don’t be sad, the media dose not represent everything in the world. I do care about every event, and I am sure that there are a lot of people like me. Paece.
I write this as a French resident, and someone who lived in Jordan from 1980 to 1983, visited Lebanon regularly during that period, and was in Beirut 2 days after the Sabra and Chatila massacres, so I am very aware of the suffering of the Lebanese, and of course the Palestinians at that time. I have subsequently been horrified by the dramatic disintegration of Iraq and Syria, and as a British citizen I am only too aware of the role played we played.
Nevertheless, I want to take issue with the comments in your blog. I copy beow my Facebook status of this morning:
I am disturbed by posts complaining that we (the West?) have not shown the same compassion towards the bombings in Lebanon, Iraq etc. It’s NOT a competition. As someone who repeatedly and openly berates the fate of the Palestinians,and deplores that has happened in Iraq my mind is nevertheless full of Paris currently, and I refuse to believe that I am wrong in that. Most people in the West have either visited or dreamed of visiting Paris so there is a proximity in this attack which is not the case with Yemen or the Middle East. I doubt the people of those countries are as appalled by what has happened in Paris as we are, not because they lack humanity, but because Paris is far away from their own pain.
Furthermore, I refuse to believe that people are as callous as these posts claim. Although this is only anecdotal, as I sat discussing what had happened in the Dr’s waiting room yesterday, the first thing that the lady I was talking to mentioned was a comparison to “those poor people in Lebanon”. It is arrogant to assume that the man in the street is oblivious to the suffering of others.
Nevertheless,there is quite simply a different quality to this attack, an organised, concerted attempt to disrupt and instill fear in the life of the West, and which has killed and maimed nearly a thousand people. I don’t think I would be a decent human being if my mind wasn’t full of Paris today, mourning the deaths of primarily young men and women whose only crime was to be out enjoying themselves on a Friday night.
You matter; however, you cannot compare the ongoing violence in Lebanon and the Middle East to what occurred in Paris. Sad as it is, violence had been usual in Lebanon and Isreal for years. That’s what makes Paris such a tragedy. It doesn’t happen there. Same as 9-11 in the US.
i have just recently visited beirut with my grankids,beautiful city filled with warm friendly people
CNN is a US news channel, no matter where you are watching it. BBC is a UK channel. I am sure that Middle Eastern channels talk more about Beirut and less about Paris. Maybe in Eastern Asia none of them are mentioned or they are mentioned briefly only. As well, African channels will concentrate on African news.
Media is a business. The media will show whatever will take to have more viewers.
A very good blog, I wanted to add something if I may. I think in the end it is about national power, the power of nations. That is why the deaths in Paris are seen as mattering more than Beirut. France is powerful and has powerful friends and neighbours, Lebanon doesn’t. A rich man’s life ‘matters’ more than a middle class man’s, which is more than a poor man’s. All of these are down graded again if he is a minority and down graded if it is a woman’s life. While there is disparity in power or wealth some lives will seem to ‘matter’ more than others. I do not like this at all.
Thank you for sharing this post. You put my thoughts into words when I was not able to
Reblogged this on Screw Perfection. .