I am sad to follow the updates of the Charlie Hebdo attack. It was heartbreaking and I feel personal connection because I have friends who live, work, and have families and friends in Paris. As an Indonesian who is living in Australia, I am still in the mourning period of the Sydney siege and the crash of AirAsia QZ8501. After watching the news, I felt restless then I decided to write my sympathy for the victims of this attack. Of course it is not just for the innocent people who died in the attack, but the people of France and all Muslims around the world.
Like many people, I have a dream to visit France one day. France has always been magnificent for me: its history, revolution, language, wine, and the girls! And like other countries, France also has complex problems: economy, immigration, and job crisis - especially if you live in Paris. The Guardian called France as 'the New Sick Man of Europe' for its economic problems, such as the rising unemployment, weak growth, a disaffected business community, low productivity and high taxes. In 2009 New York Times published a report of the increasing number of stressed workers in France following a sucide accident of a worker of the Orange Telecome company. Not to mention the racial and religious problems within the society. From what I have gathered, France is just the same as other countries, it is vulnerable.
We all grow up vulnerable in the fear of something. I never thought that my generation will grow up afraid of being killed in a public place, just because we happen to be there. I thought it would still be AIDS or the ASEAN open market thingy. A totally different kind of tragedy that I wanted.
— Satish Acharya (@satishacharya) January 7, 2015
Share love, not hatred
With the internet and media coverage in this digital age, it is difficult not to be emotionally affected by a tragedy. Especially when it happens in your neighborhood, work place, or even in a little village in Pakistan where a friend of the extended family of your sister-in-law's colleague used to live. See? It is amazing how technology can connect us, but also destroy us.
As millennials, we have our mobile devices to connect with people from all around the world. Everyday we exchange information - some are shits, some are gold. It all depends on you which one you want to share with your peers, or the strangers in your follower list. After I saw the ABC published the news on the Charlie Hebdo attack, I checked my Facebook page, just in case anyone that I know was a victim. I sent a message of sympathy to my French Friends, then I checked Anggun C Sasmi's twitter and she still looks fab. But that's not the point. The point is that we don't need to put more religious tension at this stage. We feel afraid, then we need to find ways to cope. It is more effective to be nice and be emphatic.
Because the victims are not just the cartoonists and other people who were shot in that attack, but also the people of France and all Muslims around the world. The social media such as Twitter and Facebook then became a public sphere where people came together to express their concerns and sympathy. It is easy to raise the tension by making religion-related comments on social media. If you are reading this, I hope you did not do the same mistake. That just shows that you are scared, and you should know that you can feel scared without hurting others.
However, we should not be afraid. Because as a Taliban attack survivor, Melala Yusofani, once said "I am stronger than fear". Cowards are afraid of something they don't even understand. Don't be one. Investigate, digest, understand better. Then if you feel less scared, pass this feeling to others. That's how we millennials make the world - at least - a less scary place.
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| "Thousands of demonstrators gathered Wednesday at the Place de la Republique after the shooting deaths at a French satirical newspaper in Paris" . Image Source: the Daily Beast |
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