Double the number killed in Nigeria as those murdered in Mumbai, and many more refuges in light of the mayhem, and yet the response to this past week’s events in Nigeria is relatively muted. Why is that?
Could it be that we are fascinated by the attacks in Mumbai because we identify more with those victims? Is it because the victims in the attacks in India appear more innocent and therefore make them more appealing to us? Is it that Mumbai affirms a wide-spread fear about the growing threat of terror, especially terror sponsored by Islamist organizations, while in Africa Christians spilled as much blood as their Muslim neighbors?
Do we simply care less about Africa than we do about India? Is it because Mumbai is a cosmopolitan city, important to the global economy? Perhaps it is because westerners were victimized in India but not in Nigeria.
Perhaps we simply suffer from what the experts call “compassion fatigue”. Perhaps we are simply overloaded by the coincidence of these horrific events and most of us simply cannot find the space in our hearts to carry so much pain.
Whatever the reasons, we need to pay close attention to both tragedies and how they are unfolding. Why? If for no other reason, pure self interest. The events in Nigeria may be the pre-cursor to Mumbai-like terror in Africa as well. Every cause that spawns global terror began with a local conflict to which little attention was paid.
Perhaps by paying real attention to an “unimportant” city like Jos in Nigeria today, we can both heal the suffering of at least as many people as were effected in India and even preclude the kind of organized terror which accomplished 200 murders in Mumbai.
Beliefnet
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
posted December 2, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Mumbai is aired repeatedly because westerners and jews were killed.period.
WEST IS NOT BOTHERED ABT COMMON HUMAN BEING IN THE WORLD.
posted December 2, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Perhaps the Rabbi Brad should read Avishai Margalit book “The Ethics of Memory” the difference between thick and thin relations. I have a much thicker set
of relations with Jews — no matter where they are and who they are — than I do with
Armenians or Rwandans etc . Most human beings are that way. It’s part of the way we
love, and it’s part of the way we cope. We couldn’t bear life if every human tragedy
cut to the core of our being.
I’m not a big
believer in quantifying or comparing suffering. No, it’s not that. I don’t believe for a
moment that our suffering matters more, or that our lives are more sacred. It’s just that
stories about my people, my family, my narrative, and yes — my country — move me
more powerfully and intimately than stories about others.
So One dead Rabbi or how many Jews die matters.
posted December 2, 2008 at 6:40 pm
The Nigerian incident involved not 400 but 200 dead. It was not an attack by a terrorist group planned and executed from outside the country but an internal matter that has gotten out of hand and is being blown out of proportion here. And most importantly, what happened in Mumbai is seen as an example of the kind of attack that could happen in many cities in the free-world. The events in Nigeria are perceived as a localized occurrence that is not threatening to the rest of us. I am saddened by any senseless loss of life, but do not see the moral equivalence here that you want us to bring to the story.
posted December 2, 2008 at 7:27 pm
“I… do not see the moral equivalence here that you want us to bring to the story.”
A mindset such as yours, Saul, is why so many people around the world hate Jews. Not that you would understand that.
posted December 2, 2008 at 9:26 pm
With all respect, Rabbi Hirschberg, what is the point of this post? If you want to publicize the events in Nigeria, then by all means, go ahead. But why did you feel the need to turn this into a numbers game? In doing so, you cheapen the memory of all who’ve died– in Mumbai as well as Nigeria.
posted December 2, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Thanks Rabbi Hirschfield for the post.
Yes, we should care more for the victims in Nigeria and the extent of the tragedy in Nigeria is as big or even bigger than the tragedy in Mumbai. We are all connected to each other as we are living in this world as collective beings. May violence and hatred cease as we try to increase in peace and love.
Some other questions we could ask: Do I care about the sufferings of others to the extent that I care about my own sufferings?
It is easy to think that I’m the center of the universe.
Thanks.
Eric
posted December 3, 2008 at 9:35 am
Thanks Zev, for suggestion. I actually know the book and it’s author, the latter only the slightly and the former quite well. In fact, it shapes my thoughts on this topic. So much so, that unlike you, I am comfortable admitting what we both feel i.e. that we do all at times quantify suffering – and necessarily so.
But assuming that there is only one proper way to quantify is dangerous. In fact, the uniquely idiosyncratic process is the subject of the book to which you refer. The question is can we be concious of the cost we pay for making the decisions we have made?
I never said what does or doesn’t matter. If people need to keep justifying why they care more about one group than another, I suppose that’s okay. In fact, it’s more than okay, it’s a sign of real struggle with the limits of our compassion. So go to it.
But please don’t confuse that with the issues I am addressing. I want to better understand what thinking will be needed to keep the horror from happening again, wherever and to whomever it happens.
posted December 3, 2008 at 11:06 am
“I want to better understand what thinking will be needed to keep the horror from happening again, wherever and to whomever it happens’
Answer
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=2CCED709-29BE-4639-A7E3-9858AD98271E
posted December 3, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Rabbi Hirschfield,
Thank you for raising this important point. Last month at The Xenia Institute, we raised a similar point in one of our monthly dialogues. We went around and around with this topic and kept coming back to the same dialectic: the difference between personal contact and abstraction. I think with the “compassion fatigue” that you mentioned regarding Africa, we sometimes find it difficult to make any sort of personal connection to the horrors that occur daily there. We leave those horrors in some level of abstraction, mostly so that we aren’t overwhelmed by the immense pain and suffering. Overwhelmed, though, is exactly what we need to be. We must recognize that we are all drawn up in the same pain, and only we can help alleviate that pain. This is why I think it’s so important to make efforts to connect with the personal stories that come out of places like Darfur, Rwanda, Somalia, and others. When we know personal stories, when we see the humanity that exists at the heart of a situation, it’s much more difficult for “compassion fatigue” to take away our ability to feel and to care and to begin the cycle of change.
Clint Williams
The Xenia Institute
Norman, Oklahoma
posted December 3, 2008 at 3:50 pm
A mindset such as yours, Saul, is why so many people around the world hate Jews. Not that you would understand that.
Nasty, Robert, very nasty.
To justify a worldwide hatred on a people because you seem to think we “all” believe a certain way or that we don’t care about non-Jews, shows disingenuousness, shallowness of thought, narrowness of point of view.
Whatever your own religion, Robert, or nationality, I would find it impossible to believe that you would not first identify with victims of that religion or nationality, especially when it’s the primary reason the group was singled out and attacked.
posted December 3, 2008 at 4:22 pm
My dear Rabbi,
Thank you for raising this matter regarding the deaths in Nigeria that was less reported when compared to that of Mumbai all within same week. That is not the only thing that is being less reported. Take a look at Congo and you will agree with me that right before our eyes, a government that lacks control of the state is also ignoring a man who insists that that something be done about the Hutu militias who are hiding in Congo. Remember that it was this militia that killed almost 1 million in Rwanda in 1994 while the powers of this world turned the other way. It is happening now in Nigeria where Ibo people are being systematically annihilated by the Nigerian government agents. Just like the case in Jos where more than 400 people lost their lives, such uprisings usually gets started at the slightest provocation and then people of Ibo tribe gets killed and nothing happens.
The Ibo people are said to be part of the missing or unaccounted tribe of Israel and right now, this population accounts for about 45 million and 95% are practicing Christians and this is the major reason why they come under constant Islamic persecution where ever they reside within Nigeria. From 1966-1970 Nigeria went to war against Ibo people and two million died among the Ibo people yet not a single person was ever convicted for the war crimes or genocide committed during that pogrom. This are just few of the lot that has fallen against Africa and I do believe that the creator of all things is not partial in his dealings with people or nations and the time may not be far from now when Africa and its people will get the great visitation that will change all things.
I thank you for raising this matter up and I hope it awakens some thinking in the heart of all that read it.
posted December 4, 2008 at 8:07 pm
What months of the month has an accident claiming tens of lives not happened in Nigeria or how long has the Niger-Delta imbroglio been going on? The dignity that goes with the human life is no longer valued in Nigeria, the various governments are siphoning funds meant to build roads and other public amenities to their private bank account home and abroad. Nigeria is literally, hell on earth in every sense of the word and you cant blame anybody but the government of Nigeria and its corrupt leaders. If we do not take care of our affairs from the oil money we get daily, why should we expect the world to take whatever is happening serious?
The African continent as a whole is addicted to aid from abroad, corruption has been the bane of growth and development which these aids are meant for. My beloved countrymen, we have failed in our bid to govern ourselves, Nigeria needs to be re-colonized. Period.
posted December 6, 2008 at 6:55 am
“major reason why they(Ibo pple which are 95% christians=christians) come under constant islamic persecution where ever they reside within Nigeria.”Dont know if you’re making reference to the situation in jos or not?.Be it the case,i’d lik to know if this is your point of view or you got it from a source?.For jos,i am from jos,the hausa/fulani(95% musulims) always suffer a greater lost than the so-called ethnic groups.Do you know why?.Let me tell you why,because it turns out to be a clash between the police(most of which are the so-called ethnic groups)+ the so-called ethnic groups and the hausa/fulani.For example the 400 murders being reported are hausa/fulani.So with all due respect, you’re wrong,because all what the hausa/fulani want in jos is justice,equity and fairness and not persecuting any religion or ethnic group.In this point,i’d like to call the attention of the government to look into the jos case with more seriousness and importance,because if this “massacre” of the hausa/fulani continuous,it risque to generate into a nationwide clash,just like it almost did in 2001.We do not pray for it.
For the Nigerian civil war,I wouldn’t call it a massacre of the Ibo people but rather a civil war,because the government acted towards the unity of Nigeria.