Why Madonna Doesn't Sing for Iraq
by Kavitha Chekuru
It is difficult to imagine living in Sri Lanka or Thailand or any of the countries hit by the tsunami that began off the coast of Indonesia. Watching your life wash away, searching, hoping someone from your family will be found. Alive.
It is also difficult to imagine living in a place where your city is constantly being bombed, living without basic necessities such as water, food, and medicine, knowing death is a possibility any day. Holding your breath every second.
Wait. I meant, it is difficult to imagine living in Iraq.
That is what it was like for an Iraqi civilian during the war, and even to an extent today while the war is not really over, as some would like us to believe. But how would a person who lived in the United States know that?
The media have not been encouraging in that respect. At least not in the way they have been with the tsunami disaster. I don't intend or want to minimize the severity of the situation in South Asia, but I have to wonder how we have let ourselves ignore the daily tragedy of the Iraqi civilians.
The fault lies with the media. Where were the images of the wrecked and ravaged homes and lives of the people dying for a war allegedly being fought for their freedom? Or perhaps interviews on how they felt about the constant presence of U.S. troops in their homeland? Just to know what they think about this situation that is their day: our soldiers razing their homes, killing their friends and family. Maybe that is asking too much.
I suppose press like that does not exactly couple well with talks on our "ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world," or discussions on foreign government stating that "success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people," as President Bush said during his inaugural address, Jan. 20. I guess those goals don't require that we treat them decently.
The media brought back daily reports on the valiant efforts of our soldiers abroad as the war advanced, our soldiers defending liberty and freeing Iraq from oppression and tyranny. At times the mainstream press gave wee critical discussions, as it should have, on the war and the policies of the Bush administration, reporting how many American soldiers had died or had been killed by rebel insurgents.
However, you would have to thoroughly search a pile of those articles or Google 'til you drop to find the number of casualties among Iraqi civilians, the people that were being killed for their very own freedom. Destroy a nation to liberate it. Post-mortem freedom. It’s an interesting concept.
More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died since we invaded their home in March 2003. In Falluja alone, an estimated 250,000 people have fled to live as refugees in surrounding areas, knowing full well that it is more than a possibility that they will be living without access to food, water, shelter, or medical care, to name a few problems. The options are slim, though. The latter situation, or living under the rubble of your own destroyed home in an occupied city. You probably don't have adequate access to basic necessities due to U.S. military blockades. But that is not the image of Operation Iraqi Freedom! We all must maintain the patriotic spirit, especially those of us in the press!
To some it may seem ridiculous to ask this question, but why did we not mobilize and organize for justice and aid in Iraq like we did for relief in the tsunami countries? It is not because people in our country do not have the capacity to empathize or help those that are in need.
If anything, the tsunami disaster has shown us that people here are more than capable of doing so. Fundraisers and campaigns have been organized across the country on a real grassroots level, from a 10-year-old selling lemonade in Florida to student groups at universities nationwide raising funds to celebrity relief concerts.
I cannot decide if the mainstream media would be more appropriately labeled Scrooges because of lack of sympathy to the Iraqi civilians or scaredy cats for being too afraid to strongly criticize the Bush administration for the hundreds of thousands of dead civilians in Iraq from an unjust war that took place on their own soil.
The American people are ready to help others in the world. But joint efforts across society have to take place in order for this to be fully realized. When the media inundated us with images of the tragedies across the sea from the tsunami, we mobilized faster than our government did to bring aid and relief.
We were, and still are, more than capable of doing the same for those living in Iraq under the ruins of our government's ideological crusade.
The American people are capable of empathy and emotion, but how can we organize aid and action if we don't even realize it is needed? My question is no longer where the relief campaigns and music concerts for Iraqi civilians were, but when will the media finally take responsibility and show us the truth?
When will they mobilize?
We cannot wait much longer.
Neither can the rest of the world.
It is difficult to imagine living in Sri Lanka or Thailand or any of the countries hit by the tsunami that began off the coast of Indonesia. Watching your life wash away, searching, hoping someone from your family will be found. Alive.
It is also difficult to imagine living in a place where your city is constantly being bombed, living without basic necessities such as water, food, and medicine, knowing death is a possibility any day. Holding your breath every second.
Wait. I meant, it is difficult to imagine living in Iraq.
That is what it was like for an Iraqi civilian during the war, and even to an extent today while the war is not really over, as some would like us to believe. But how would a person who lived in the United States know that?
The media have not been encouraging in that respect. At least not in the way they have been with the tsunami disaster. I don't intend or want to minimize the severity of the situation in South Asia, but I have to wonder how we have let ourselves ignore the daily tragedy of the Iraqi civilians.
The fault lies with the media. Where were the images of the wrecked and ravaged homes and lives of the people dying for a war allegedly being fought for their freedom? Or perhaps interviews on how they felt about the constant presence of U.S. troops in their homeland? Just to know what they think about this situation that is their day: our soldiers razing their homes, killing their friends and family. Maybe that is asking too much.
I suppose press like that does not exactly couple well with talks on our "ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world," or discussions on foreign government stating that "success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people," as President Bush said during his inaugural address, Jan. 20. I guess those goals don't require that we treat them decently.
The media brought back daily reports on the valiant efforts of our soldiers abroad as the war advanced, our soldiers defending liberty and freeing Iraq from oppression and tyranny. At times the mainstream press gave wee critical discussions, as it should have, on the war and the policies of the Bush administration, reporting how many American soldiers had died or had been killed by rebel insurgents.
However, you would have to thoroughly search a pile of those articles or Google 'til you drop to find the number of casualties among Iraqi civilians, the people that were being killed for their very own freedom. Destroy a nation to liberate it. Post-mortem freedom. It’s an interesting concept.
More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died since we invaded their home in March 2003. In Falluja alone, an estimated 250,000 people have fled to live as refugees in surrounding areas, knowing full well that it is more than a possibility that they will be living without access to food, water, shelter, or medical care, to name a few problems. The options are slim, though. The latter situation, or living under the rubble of your own destroyed home in an occupied city. You probably don't have adequate access to basic necessities due to U.S. military blockades. But that is not the image of Operation Iraqi Freedom! We all must maintain the patriotic spirit, especially those of us in the press!
To some it may seem ridiculous to ask this question, but why did we not mobilize and organize for justice and aid in Iraq like we did for relief in the tsunami countries? It is not because people in our country do not have the capacity to empathize or help those that are in need.
If anything, the tsunami disaster has shown us that people here are more than capable of doing so. Fundraisers and campaigns have been organized across the country on a real grassroots level, from a 10-year-old selling lemonade in Florida to student groups at universities nationwide raising funds to celebrity relief concerts.
I cannot decide if the mainstream media would be more appropriately labeled Scrooges because of lack of sympathy to the Iraqi civilians or scaredy cats for being too afraid to strongly criticize the Bush administration for the hundreds of thousands of dead civilians in Iraq from an unjust war that took place on their own soil.
The American people are ready to help others in the world. But joint efforts across society have to take place in order for this to be fully realized. When the media inundated us with images of the tragedies across the sea from the tsunami, we mobilized faster than our government did to bring aid and relief.
We were, and still are, more than capable of doing the same for those living in Iraq under the ruins of our government's ideological crusade.
The American people are capable of empathy and emotion, but how can we organize aid and action if we don't even realize it is needed? My question is no longer where the relief campaigns and music concerts for Iraqi civilians were, but when will the media finally take responsibility and show us the truth?
When will they mobilize?
We cannot wait much longer.
Neither can the rest of the world.
posted by The Protest at 2/16/2005
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