Gov Hooka 8,008 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 As many as a million people, joined by 40 world leaders, filled the streets of Paris on Sunday in solidarity after two separate terrorist attacks claimed 17 innocent lives last week. The day before, more than 3,000 miles to the south, a girl believed to be around 10 approached the entrance to a crowded market in Maiduguri, a city of some 1 million in Nigeria's Borno State. As a security guard inspected her, the girl detonated explosives strapped to her body, killing herself and at least 19 others. Dozens more were injured. Saturday's suicide bombing elicited little coverage compared to the events in Paris, which have dominated headlines since last Wednesday's attack on Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper. Why the slaughter of 17 innocents in France receives more attention than the death of roughly the same number of Nigerians is the kind of question that can result in accusations of indifference, racism, and media bias. But the contrast between the attacks in Paris and the suicide bombing in Maiduguri actually reveals something far more sinister: the ravages of state failure. Boko Haram is waging a ruthless war throughout northeast Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. On Wednesday, Boko Haram militants laid siege to Baga, a city that has resisted them, setting fire to buildings and killing residents indiscriminately. Hundreds of people fled into Lake Chad and attempted to swim to a nearby island. Many drowned along the way. Those who didn't are now marooned without food and shelter and have no defense against the island's swarm of malarial mosquitos. The death toll in Baga reportedly exceeds 2,000. Some 20,000 others are now displaced. The New York Times story on this deadly siege appeared on page A6 of Saturday's print edition, while the paper's story of the suicide bombing landed on page A8. How did the attacks in France so thoroughly bury the atrocities in Nigeria? One explanation is the difficulty of covering dangerous, remote parts of the world, such as Nigeria's northeastern Borno State, where Boko Haram holds sway over much of the territory. A similar dynamic exists in Syria, where a civil war has claimed nearly 200,000 lives since erupting in 2011, and where relatively few journalists are there to witness it. In addition, it's likely that the Paris attack's focus on a publication touched a nerve with members of the media worldwide. But it's not that the media doesn't cover Nigeria, or that Westerners don't care about Africans. After all, when Boko Haram fighters kidnapped nearly 200 girls from a school in Chibok in April of last year, a public campaign to bring them back attracted widespread publicity, with even First Lady Michelle Obama contributing a photograph. Two years before that, a video from the now-defunct NGO Invisible Children that highlighted Joseph Kony, the Ugandan warlord who leads the Lord's Resistance Army, was viewed over 100 million times in its first six days. These campaigns, whatever their shortcomings, did at least show that people in the West aren't totally indifferent to African suffering. The main difference between France and Nigeria isn't that the public and the media care about one and not the other. It is, rather, that one country has an effective government and the other does not. The French may not be too fond of President Francois Hollandeâ€â€his approval ratings last November had plunged to 12 percentâ€â€but he responded to his country's twin terror attacks with decisiveness. Not so Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan. Since assuming the presidency in 2010, Jonathan has done little to contain Boko Haram. The group emerged in 2002 and has consolidated control over an area larger than West Virginia. And it's gaining ground. Perversely, the seemingly routine nature of Nigeria's violence may have diminished the perception of its newsworthiness. Jonathan's failure to confront Boko Haram, of course, is nothing new. Nigeria has long been cursed with a corrupt, ineffective government, one perennially unable to translate the country's vast oil wealth into broad-based prosperity. During his campaign for re-electionâ€â€Nigerians go to the polls on February 14â€â€Jonathan has vowed to tackle his country's problem with graft. At a campaign rally on Thursday, the president exhorted his followers to support him. "You must vote for your liberation, you must vote for your development, you must vote to take Nigeria to the moon," he said. "You cannot vote to take Nigeria backward." Boko Haram wasn't mentioned once. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/01/boko-harams-quiet-destruction-of-northeast-nigeria/384416/ Thoughts? Discuss. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paco 3,040 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Because extremists are way more important in Nigeria than they are in France and it happens all the time there so it's not as surprising ? France is a western country so other ones are more touched? Because France is a symbol of freedom and democracy and if it happens in France it means it can happen anywhere else in any other western countries? idk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Didymus 34,380 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Thanks for posting, that sure is interesting and I asked myself the same question. I guess there are some answers offered in that article, but its defensive tone makes me wonder about the objectivity of it. Like, seriously, I do think there's more to it. The girls getting kidnapped getting coverage and this barely is and even when it's mentioned people don't really care? But then why did they care about the kidnapping? Was it just a more dramatic image that offered more emotional relatability? No, this hasn't convinced me that there isn't some racial bias or unfair media attention. Not at all. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memo 176 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Because extremists are way more important in Nigeria than they are in France and it happens all the time there so it's not as surprising ? France is a western country so other ones are more touched? Because France is a symbol of freedom and democracy and if it happens in France it means it can happen anywhere else in any other western countries? idk Doesn't mean the 2000 innocent victims don't matter though also that is a huge number, image all those poor people both events are terrible and should be payed equal attention in the media tbh Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizabeth 750 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Honestly, I definitely do think there's racial element to it, and western media will nearly always focus on something happening in the west rather than elsewhere if they have the 'choice'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 680 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 People on the Right (and people caring about sales) care more about attacks on the West. People on the Left who pride themselves on multicultural sensibilities, worry about arousing more "islamophobia" if they emphasize how Islamism is on a rampage everywhere. They'd rather blame US-UK foreign policy etc. than see Islamic terrorism as a global threat. Nobody has any solution to the Nigerian violence. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRILL MONSTER 1,113 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Because in Americas eyes .......... Africa is just a wasteland with black people starving to death with no importance too their lives And when you think of paris you think of a lush paridise were people are always happy and everyone looks good It's really all about race Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luiz 4,253 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 i wonder how much black people in america care about black people in africa I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumblebee 2,528 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 The media of the so-called "western world" is oriented towards the "western world" readers, who don't seem to express much interest towards any sort of conflicts in Africa or other places beyond the so-called civilized world. This is why the events like that do not get as much news coverage as the events which took place in France. However, the ongoing military conflicts in Africa resulted in estimated 67,870 deaths on the continent in 2014 alone, and this figure was only surpassed by the casualties in Syrian war (est. 70,000 dead in the Syrian conflict zone in 2014). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melech 9,900 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Because in Americas eyes .......... Africa is just a wasteland with black people starving to death with no importance too their lives And when you think of paris you think of a lush paridise were people are always happy and everyone looks good It's really all about race Of course it's horrible ,but I don't think that race plays a huge role in that. In EU it's more covered since it's something that usually never happens in our civilized continent. Of course we are more moved by things that happened to our people. Of course it's awful what happened in Nigeria and I bet it was huge news in Africa. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkwolf 590 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 because it doesn't sell Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
uo111 5,282 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 I don't understand how this is new to people. No one has ever cared about Africa. It's been like that for hundreds of years, and people are suprised by it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 680 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 i wonder how much black people in america care about black people in africa They cared a lot when white racism was the villain in South Africa, but black on black violence not so much. Christians are persecuted by Muslims in the Middle East too, and nobody cares much about that either. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 680 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Africa is just a wasteland with black people starving to death with no importance too their lives And when you think of paris you think of a lush paridise were people are always happy and everyone looks good Isn't all the concern about cultural appropriation partly to blame. We can have fun movies and musicals set in Paris like Moulin Rouge. But try to present a romanticized or exotic piece about Africa and and SJW will find fault with it and call it racist. So all we hears about Africa is Bad News, how they are miserable and need help. 1947 - Andrews Sister song presents Africa as fun place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEyDNTLlRgU Quite a contrast to "Do They Know It's Christmas" - the well-meaning charity song that presents Africa as a pathetic place of misery and starvation where nothing ever grows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjQzJAKxTrE Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon 457 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Because it's news, close, rarely happens, a modern country Don't turn this into a race or a they don't care thing Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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