We Will Remember Them

''Thou shalt give equal worth to tragedies that occur in non-english speaking countries as to those that occur in english speaking countries'

- Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip

Boston Marathon blasts

Tragically, yesterday (at the time of writing) 3 people were killed by bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, 15th April 2013. Over 140 people have been confirmed to be injured including runners and bystanders. 

On the same day on the other side of the world, 31 people were killed and over 200 people injured in road-side and car explosions in cities across Iraq. 

The latter of the two stories has become so commonplace is our news bulletins, perhaps replacing the word 'Iraq' with 'Syria' or 'Afghanistan' that we don't think twice when we hear of it. But when the news broke about the explosions at the 2013 Boston Marathon, we were instantly looking at the news channels and websites to find out the full details of the story (myself included); the BBC news website had the Boston bombings as its top story, with the Iraq bombings tucked away at the bottom of the page and there was virtually no coverage of it on the BBC's dedicated news channel. Both occurrences are desperately sad and will have repercussions for the family and friends of the deceased and also the witnesses of the events, but we simply must not dismiss these tragedies when they happen in the places where 'they always happen'. 

Remains of an Iraqi car bomb

There is a challenge for us when we hear of such horrible and shocking news from the USA, or anywhere else for that matter, not to lose focus on what is going on in the rest of the world, like for example that an estimated 70,000 people have died in the last two years as a result of the conflict in Syria. 70,000 people. The purpose of doing this is not to belittle what is going on in the mainstream news, but to remind ourselves that just because the news editors think the Western World is more important, doesn't mean that we have to agree. It is relatively unusual for something like this to happen in the USA, or generally in the Western World and it is therefore probably more shocking to hear, but the reality is that in a place such as Syria, the threat of violence of this nature is very real and ongoing. 

We should treat the loss of human life in any country, of any race, of any social class and in any number as a tragedy. We will remember them.