Op-Ed
Ignorance is Bliss
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A Helping of Hummus
A Helping of Hummus
.jpg "A Helping of Hummus")
I’d like to open my column by saying welcome to the class of 2011. Last year at this time, I had completed my first task on the “161 Things Every Cornellian Should Do” List by sending in #61 — “an angry letter to the editor of The Sun.” And now, in my second year, I have my own column — who knew? It seems appropriate to start this column by telling you why I wanted it in the first place. No, it’s not just to have people stare at my face as they’re doing the crossword in Anthro 102 or even to induce an angry wave of letters to The Sun (though that would be awesome). In all honesty, I decided to go for this position, as cliché and vigilante-esque as it sounds, to make some kind of a difference. In a world where the media has become more of a WWF Smackdown (see Fox News) and where journalists are more concerned with high ratings or selling papers than reporting the news, I decided I’d do my part. That and I got tired of sending in letters to the editor. So how do I prove my point?
Take this example. I was lounging this summer on a beach chair by the pool with the Mediterranean behind me when I heard bombs going off in the distance. Sorry, let me give you some context. I was lounging this summer on a beach chair by a pool in Lebanon. If you’ve been following the news closely, then you might know that the Lebanese Army has been fighting a radical Islamic group made up of Yemenis, Saudis, Syrians, etc. There’s no need for me to go into all the details now, but what it comes down to is that the Lebanese Army has been attempting to eliminate these militants for the past three months resulting in 137 military casualties and the total destruction of a Palestinian refugee camp, which at one time housed 30,000 people. So what bothered me most about hearing the bombs exploding in the distance? The fact that everyone ran, grabbing their children out of the kiddie pools as they passed, and hid them out of harm’s way? No, exactly the opposite. What bothered me most was that no one even flinched. The plastic-surgery-adorned, booty-short wearing mothers continued to strut around as if on a catwalk and the children carried on screaming. “Good,” most people would say. “The Lebanese have to go on with their lives.” I completely agree, but my fear is that we become desensitized to war and violence. In what seems to me to be an increasingly more violent world, becoming immune to violence would be catastrophic.
Take a more recent example. On Aug. 14, something major happened in Iraq. Do you know what it was? If you do, go ahead and pat yourself on the back — just kidding, you’ll embarrass yourself … especially if you’re sitting in Libe Café and reading this. On the 14th, four bombs went off in Northern Iraq, killing approximately 250 people. 250 people. Think about that for a second. 250 people whose lives are now over. And how many Americans do you think know about this? On the day the BBC reported the news, the “Most Read” article was “Matt Damon Dismisses Dated Bond.” Oh. My. God. Matt Damon thinks the James Bond character is dated??? DATED??? Now that is world news.
It’s hard to blame people though. After nearly five years of a senseless war, who wants to read article after article about how Iraqis and Americans are being slaughtered — it’s depressing, especially when you can’t do anything about it. Right? That’s my excuse whenever I don’t want to read the latest news article about Iraq and instead focus on the Paris Hilton prison saga. It’s way better to laugh at a snobby, spoiled heiress be tricked into thinking she’s home-free only to find herself behind bars again or to see what Lindsey Lohan was wearing/not wearing today. But then I think — what would happen if we all stopped listening to the news — if we all stopped caring about Iraq, Afghanistan, AIDS, poverty, hunger? What would happen if we all traded in our subscription to the New York Times for US Weekly or switched from CNN to Fox News?
Woodrow Wilson once said, “We are citizens of the world. The tragedy of our times is that we do not know this.” We should be as horrified and saddened by the disastrous events going on throughout the world as we are by the ones, like 9/11 and Virginia Tech, that happen on our own soil. This year, I’m going to try to make you care by reminding you that we are all citizens of the world.
Nora Choueiri is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be contacted at nnc2@cornell.edu. A Helping of Hummus will appear alternate Mondays.