Two thousand fellow Nigerians dead ? And the world moves on?? First I heard it on TBN/ CBN/700 club as the world was still reeling from the news of the Charlie Hebdo massacres in Paris. A blackout on the news followed. Nothing else about the Nigerian dead was on American media. I no longer have easy access to the internet and TV so that made it even more difficult to confirm the news about the 2,000 killed by Boko Haram in North Eastern Nigeria. Not even the Nigerians I know were talking about it. It wasn’t until a few days later when I again listened to TV news during chemo at the hospital that I was able to confirm the news. This time it was The Five on Fox News Channel discussing the mass killings.
So 2,000 people were really killed by terrorists in Nigeria and the world continues to go about its business. I felt the same way after I got the news my father had died. As I was being taken away in a car by the couple who broke the news to me I noted that people were still going about their business. How can the world be so uncaring, I wondered. Maybe I expected traffic to come to a screeching halt following news of my father’s death. But the world seemed oblivious to my private tragedy. The ebb and flow of life continued unimpeded. Years later, I found myself telling my fiance Patrick, “The world would move on if you die. I discovered that that is what happens after I lost my dad.”
He had pulled an all nighter at his office and I had gone to his office the next day to impress it upon him that his law partners and I would move on if something happened to him on account of his working late hours. His partners came into his office and told him something along these lines: You better listen to her, we will indeed survive if we lose you.
In a few days, Patrick was gone. He had been working late again the night the first signs of the aneurysm that killed him crept up. Again, I felt that the world did not stop to acknowledge with me the passing of a great person. Nobody, it seemed to me, took notice that he no longer walked the streets around his downtown Honolulu office.
The world does indeed seem to have an incredible capacity to recover from the shock of tragic news. After all, the world did survive news of Princess Diana’s death. And President Kennedy’s before that. And 9-11.
It’s one thing to be shaken by tragic news, but it’s another thing to experience the fallout from a tragedy on a deeply personal level. Long after many of us recover from the 9-11 terrorist attack, the families of the victims of that attack will continue to experience the loss of their loved ones in many ways they did not anticipate. My heart goes out to them each year as they read the names of their departed loved ones during the commemoration events.
It was Mercy, my friend who made me realise that last year was indeed a year of disasters and gruesome murders during our “Happy New Year” chat. In the 21st century, we saw the emergence of beheadings as terror tactic. Mercy, still shuddering from the horror of the beheadings said, “ We don’t even see goats being beheaded anymore (in Nigeria). How can you go to work and somebody beheads you in this America!!”
May we never forget Michael Foley and the others beheaded. The shock value of beheadings seems to have diminished. The world moved on even from that one. The world’s propensity to move on was underscored by our dearly beloved President Obama quickly changing into golfing mode soon after reacting to news of Foley’s demise. The impetus to move on doth come —- too quickly, I say.
How are the families of the victims of ISIS brutal attacks on Christians and other groups holding on? Does the world really care? And what about the over 200 school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram? We have moved on from #BringBackOurGirls. I wonder if our First Lady still flashes that hashtag at her husband.
And what about the families of the passengers aboard the three planes connected to the Malaysian airlines that met a tragic end. Each plane disaster dominated the news cycle for a while, and then the world moved on.
My heart continues to go out to Joan River’s daughter, Melissa. The world moved on too after the sudden death of her mother.
I thought I would take some time to savor the joy of crossing into the New Year. Many of you know by now that I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma (cancer in the bone marrow) February last year, so I have a lot to be thankful for and was celebrating with friends and family members by phone. I was barely halfway through my Thank You and Happy New Year call list when news of the Charlie Hebdo killings broke.
My fear is the world would move on yet again. The media have been overtaken by the Leftist/Liberal ideology and they just don’t seem capable of truth telling anymore. The church is silent too. Who will speak for the people?