Showing posts with label empathy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label empathy. Show all posts

Saturday, July 16, 2022

Selective Outrage: Are we guilty of ignoring human suffering?


Photo credit: Mazi Nwonwu


Years ago, a Dana aircraft travelling from Abuja to Lagos ploughed into a two-storey building in the Iju area of Lagos killing everyone on board and some others on the ground. News of the crash soon spread as social media went abuzz. In the ensuing weeks, the fatal incident hogged the headlines on blogs and websites, while many dedicated status updates to mourn the departed, especially those on board the plane.
As is common with Nigerians, some constituted informal committees to measure how certain people mourned: Did he/she cry enough; or show enough concern by taking one week off work? Was the government’s three-day mourning period too short? Did the officials who lost bosses or subordinates in the crash mourn for a respectable enough period?
Questions were asked and people were called out.