Not a Monday mourning person

I have never really been a morning person, let alone a Monday morning person; however this morning was certainly more grim than most. With yet another news headline of an inhumane attack on innocent beings read, "Ivory Coast: 16 dead in Grand Bassam beach resort attack". As if this wasn't unsettling enough, second sentence reads on, "four of which westerners". A distaste fills my mouth as I re-read the sentence, in hope of personal error. Nope. According to the BBC,
"Westerner's" hold some higher level of importance than those, not to mention the majority of others who also helplessly lost their lives in the brutal shooting. Those other 12 nameless non-Westeners, are imposed as simply figures, with no recognition of personal or national identity. This raises issues, and awareness between the social constructed separation between the western world, and the concept around orientalism and Islamophobia.

Shock factor 1: This unjustifiable and disrespectable comment wasn't found on some mediocre social networking blog, but instead on the global foundational platform of international news. BBC news, being considered a legitimate and authentic source of current affairs, is not directly associated with only a Western audience. Being channelled and previewed in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with a weekly 74 million watchers; many of which from countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, Philippines and Thailand, results to obvious reinforcement of cultural inferiority. These "oriental" countries and cultures are overtly getting reinforced through lack of respectful recognition, with the repetitively drilled-in belief that their lives have less value, or don't quite cut it in comparison to the western folk. If this isn't problematic enough, the bigger issue is that these headlines are becoming notions of normality. Responses to the, "Four of which westerners", sparks more shock that they are "one of us" (being the collective community of westerners), than the shock of how inconsiderate and simply insensitive the media's role in the matter is. Unsure about yourself, but personally I found myself at a remarkably high level of cringe and embarrassment for being associated with the arrogance of the "westernised" media, and the hierarchy of power, privilege and importance that the western world have claimed for themselves.

(Not so shocking) Shock factor 2: "Ivory Coast has been identified as one of several countries in West Africa at risk of being targeted by Islamist militants", instantly associates a sense of danger, aggression and fear with words such as "targeted" and "risk", but dominantly the repetitively media slammed word of "Islamist". Islamaphobia is a very real issue, acting as both a factor of "orientalism" or the fear around "otherness", but entirely established and repetitively fuelled by the medias misrepresentation of the Islamic ethnicity. The constant misrepresentation of what it means to be Islamic is overlooked by the miniscule population of violent activists that we as Westerners are prominently faced with. The over-mediatized image of Islamic attire, holding guns and terrorizing innocent people is constant, and non surprisingly feeding the fear. This ultimately has resulted to a small minded westernized stereotype of associating your daily harmless Islam citizen as a danger or threat to society, disregarding all the beauty and warming culture of their true ethnic identity. This social constructed fear is creating a large barrier and in the moving forward and progression of cultural, political and social unity.

(Worryingly expected) Shock factor 3: This brutal African attack was not highlighted as largely important, likely due to the geographic location of the third world country. No doubt some take note of the attack, but a large, LARGE, portion brush on past with their blinkers on and continue on their day as if this "Oriental" world is not shared with their own. Shamelessly enough, news topics such as "Nurse said she was employee of the year.. She wasn't", gets top priority. I'm not going to even start on the obscurity of prioritization, nor the obvious point about how if an attack like Ivory Coast happened on Western territory how hard and fast it would hit the headlines, as we've all been around long enough to understand the manipulating mind of the media, and the spin it continues to feed us (more often than not) oblivious human beings.

Forgive me for the rant,  Rest in peace to each and every one of the 16 innocent lives lost in the attack.

News articles: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35798502