kavisolo.

The recent events in Mumbai have garnered considerable attention, and a few posts ago I had spoken out about the awareness India was receiving. I was angry because any other extremist attack involving the country would have been largely unnoticed by the media, and largely ignored by the public. The web is being engulfed by people who are suddenly aware of what is going on, telling anyone who will read how they feel, that they understand what’s going on. I find that to be the largest form of ignorance.

All of a sudden this awareness entitles you to a voice. You want to share with the world that what has just happened was not OK, because you love India, because for some retarded reason, you know India better than Indians. So you’ve been to your local bookstore and browsed the travel section, maybe even rented a copy of Gandhi–better yet, you’ve gone out and eaten curry. You no longer see India as that exotic destination you want to backpack through, you now understand India. You have become aware of India. You’re saddened that people would do such a thing to a country that you never really cared about because the incident involved international citizens.

I can’t stand the word awareness. Gint said it best, and I can’t remember the exact wording, so I’m going to paraphrase it: “Learning about something and being aware of it doesn’t mean that you understand it.” It doesn’t give you the right to go around commenting on what you believe should have been the right solution with your eyes closed in some smug asshole like manner. People are suddenly sympathetic, their “prayers go out to the families that have lost loved ones”. Fine, you feel hurt. People died, innocent people. But I ask you this; where was that sympathy and support when it was just Indians being blown up and shot?

The attacks are now horrifying, terrible instances of cowardice by extremists religious groups who took out their frustration on innocent tourists. The tragedy that happened last week goes beyond the fact that those killed were mostly from the Western world. It goes beyond their hate for Western practices, and it goes beyond our time. What’s been going on there has been going on for centuries. I’m angry now because it’s only because of last week that people really noticed what’s going on, but still they have the wrong idea. Don’t tell me that these acts of injustice are random or unprovoked–that they could have happened anywhere. These events happen for a reason, and these reasons have been boiling far longer than a lot of you could care to notice. When it finally hits close to home, when one of your own ends up in the middle of someone elses conflict, do people realize what the problem is.

India, the Middle East, and most of Asia has been a hotbed of modern “terrorism” for a large part of the 20th century. These conflicts arise from religious clashes, dispute over land, and governance. To say that Mumbai has been cursed with a future of unstable tourism and that people would assume danger when hearing about the region is wrong. It only opens up the hypocracy of their understanding. Western media has tainted the region, spewing non stop headlines and breaking news because some of their own have been caught in the crossfire. Stuff like this has been happening for a long time, yet people still flocked to India. But when you take one isolated incident and blow it up to really strike the fears of ignorant people, that’s when you cause the real damage. A small blurb in the daily newspaper is one thing, but when you sensationalize the angle of foreigners getting hurt, that’s when it suddenly becomes a front page expose. Why can’t it be of front page importance when 500 locals are killed, people who are just as innocent as the foreigners? This coverage should be considered for all incidents, be they in Asia or not.

“But Kavi, if we gave every incident in the world the same importance, people would just live in a constant state of fear!” Sure, unfortunately people are just as ignorant then. But you can’t sensationalize and pin point one incident that involved a fellow American or Briton. That’s what instills the most fear in people, the idea that one of their own has been hurt in a country that they know nothing about. Then Mumbai’s economy crumbles, tourism dies, and the city becomes a no-no.

Now people are criticizing the local governments for not being prepared, for not being on the look out. You don’t know how India works, how it runs. There’s no way you can say that they weren’t prepared. Maybe they were prepared, but not to the same standards of how things run here. Things move differently over there, and sadly some aspects are weaker than others, but that’s how it is. The country is young, it’s still growing, trying to figure out where it belongs and how it works. In sixty-one years, India has managed to become a future super power. Sixty-one years after the United States gained independance, the nation was just as divided and in a state of turmoil. You can sit there all high and mighty and say “We would’ve ran things differently”. You can judge all the people from that region for being a problem, but in the end, it’s you that’s the problem. The ignorant human being.

You may never understand something that doesn’t affect you directly, but the least you could do is say that you don’t get it. We don’t want to hear what should have been done or what could have been done, we just want you to know that shit happens regardless of any Westerner around.