#PrayForParis … and the Rest of the World

Photo provided by Facebook.com

Photo provided by Facebook.

As the news of the Islamic State’s attacks on Paris unfolded, variations of a social media post began to stir controversy across platforms. The post highlighted tragic events across the world and encouraged expressions of sympathy.

But the “Pray for…” hashtag quickly spilled onto unrelated events, including an undersea earthquake that could have led to a massive loss of life in Japan, but nobody was, in fact, killed or injured, reported the BBC.

Christopher Bains, a Texas Tech associate professor of French, who lived in Paris for 10 years and has family and friends in France, said all tragedies are terrible.

“I think the wrong perspective is where you compare tragedies,” he said.

The Eiffel Tower and ferris wheel on the Place de la Concorde as seen from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's hotel as he attends the COP21 climate change conference in Paris, France, on Dec. 7, 2015.

The Eiffel Tower and ferris wheel on the Place de la Concorde as seen from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s hotel as he attends the COP21 climate change conference in Paris, France, on Dec. 7, 2015.

After the Paris attacks, he said, people coped in different ways. Many put out flowers. One mystery man wheeled out a piano and played John Lennon’s “Imagine” near a Paris concert hall. Everyone should be able to respond in whatever way they want, Bains added.

At Texas Tech, the Student Government Association Diversity Committee and the French Club, among others, paid tribute to world tragedies through a candlelight vigil. The French Club played “Imagine” and released balloons.

“I thought that was a good connection between … the commemorative ceremonies,” Bains said. “There was something that went beyond just the ceremony, I thought.”

Chris Lemmons, international student life administrator, said his office pays special attention to students whose countries are going through crises. Last year after the earthquake in Nepal, he reached out to students from the country to make sure they are coping.

The community lights candles during a vigil for Nepal in Memorial Circle on campus on Saturday evening. (Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU)

The community lights candles during a vigil for Nepal in Memorial Circle last semester. (Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU)

The International Student Life office has a grant for students in need, Lemmons said. A large portion of these funds went to Nepalese students last year to help them in the wake of the earthquake.

Syrian students have not sought out help despite the crisis in their country, Lemmons said.

“We are here to help them if they need it,” Lemmons said. “But they haven’t reached out for help yet, which is good. It means they’re doing okay.”

Tarek Kandakji, a Texas Tech graduate student who came to Lubbock in 2013, said mass suffering in Syria is nothing new.

Long before the Islamic State emerged, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad terrorized Syrian civilians, using Hezbollah, an ally militant group, to murder villagers, Kandakji said. In one village, every single resident was killed.

“There is not only just this one massacre,” Kandakji said. “To make it easy for you, go to Google and put [in] ‘Assad murders,’ and you will be surprised by the images.”

Kandakji and his brother were born in Syria and moved to Jordan in 1994 with their parents. As a Syrian activist in Jordan, he said, he was involved in demonstrations in front of the Syrian embassy. All demonstrators were later wanted by the Assad regime.

“Every time me and my mom and my brother go to Syria, every single visit, we are interrogated at the Syrian borders,” Kandakji said.

Innocent lives have been lost to random violence in other countries as well, but they do not always receive media coverage.

Sonia Loza, a Texas Tech graduate part-time instructor of Spanish from Guadalajara, Mexico, said her little brother was walking outside when he was picked up from the streets.

“Some people arrived to the city and started picking up men at random,” Loza said.

She said she is not sure why her brother was chosen but speculates that his size — big and tall —played a role.

The general public does not know her little brother was kidnapped and killed in 2011, she said, and the media did not give attention to the 25-30 men who went missing at that time.

“It’s because, I think, the authorities agreed with those things, so they are not worried about anyone — just if you are a powerful man, a powerful family or a political family,” she said. “If not, you are nobody; you are nothing.”

Her family went to the Mexican authorities, who did nothing, she said. So she and her family went looking for him themselves.

He disappeared Sept. 11, 2011. By asking people in the streets, her family found out that he and the other kidnapped men were taken to Monterrey, Mexico. They found his body at the forensic center in Monterrey in February 2012.

“The president said, ‘…please, if you have a disappeared person, you need to go and look at those places to get the body,'” Loza said.

Once the family arrived to retrieve the body, she said, the “authorities appeared like magic,” only to say the family must pay $10,000.

“In total, we spent $20,000,” Loza said. “The governor, the police, the forensics — a lot of people want money.”

She thinks the media does not cover Mexico tragedies out of fear.

“There’s a lot of journalists that disappear,” Loza said.

U.S. citizens do not know all that goes on in Mexico, she said, unless huge tragedies occur. One example was when narcoterrorists exploded a Monterrey casino in 2011. According to CNN.com, 52 people died at the hands of the Zeta cartel.

“The media covered that because the people can say anything,” Loza said. “But, when it’s under the water, you can’t say anything.”

Data released by the Mexican government show there were more than 164,000 homicide victims in the country from 2007 to 2014, one of the bloodiest periods in the war against the drug cartels, according to PBS.org.

The city where Loza’s family lives has calmed down, but people in other cities are being slaughtered. Yet, nothing about these murders will air on the news, she said.

A Japanese search and rescue team in Wakuya, Japan after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Ships and aircraft from an American carrier conducted search and rescue operations and re-supply missions to support Operation Tomodachi throughout northern Japan. (Photo from the U.S. Department of Defense)

A Japanese search and rescue team in Wakuya, Japan after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Ships and aircraft from an American carrier conducted search and rescue operations and re-supply missions to support Operation Tomodachi throughout northern Japan. (Photo from the U.S. Department of Defense)

Meanwhile, non-events sometimes attract worldwide attention.

The recent #PrayforJapan hashtag probably reflected the desire of people in the U.S. to make sure everything was okay, said Kimi Nakatsukasa, an assistant professor in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures.

Nakatsukasa checks the Japanese media and said she did not see anything about the earthquake that spurred the post because, thankfully, no one died. The Paris tragedy was a more dramatic event, she said.

Even though a 2011 earthquake and tsunami led to loss of life in Japan and made people more cautious,  the Japanese don’t usually worry unless an earthquake is level 5 or 6.

“It really happens a lot,” Nakatsukasa said. “Usually it’s just like ‘oh, it’s an earthquake.’ We’re really used to it.”

Marine Corps and Army members present the Japanese defense minister an Operation Tomodachi banner aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean, April 4, 2011. The carrier provided humanitarian assistance and disaster relief following the earthquake and tsunami. (Photo from the U.S. Department of Defense)

Marine Corps and Army members present the Japanese defense minister an Operation Tomodachi banner aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean, April 4, 2011. The carrier provided humanitarian assistance and disaster relief following the earthquake and tsunami. (Photo from the U.S. Department of Defense)

She has seen the social media uproar that followed recent tragedies. Nakatsukasa has also heard friends say that people in the U.S. might find tragedies more relatable when they happen in countries with similar socioeconomic status.

“I did see people talk about ‘why aren’t we talking about the attack in Lebanon equal as what happened in Paris?'” she said. “I see that point.”

Hannah Hipp and Nicole Crites contributed to this article.

About Natalie Morales

Natalie Morales, a senior Journalism student, graduates in May of 2016. She has always loved English classes, and writing, and is now pursuing it as a career. She hopes to get a job as a news reporter for a television station in West Texas so that she stays close to home. She wants to eventually be an anchor in a top market.