#PrayForMH370
I have just picked up one spiritual ritual in my life: every morning I would check all the medias available to learn and keep in touch with the news of MH370 that went missing while I was sleeping on the night of March 8, 2014. And this kind of obsession for the unfolding spectacle will never end until the plane is found.
However, I have learnt more that
the Internet, the two-ton gorilla of global media and communications can be disgusting,
sickening and gruesome to some extents. The notion that people believe the
Internet sets us free and permits everyone to communicate effectively, hence
undermining the truth. The fact that everyone in the world can now be an
author, photographer, videographer and publisher, creates some unwelcome
gossips and speculations.
First, I cannot believe the
analysis on CNN; it’s disturbing to the max. This one global conglomerate is
also obsessed, clamoring for information with more hypotheses and wacko
theories of their own.
CNN once questioned the issue of
terrorism. They even reported if the diversion of Malaysia Airlines 370 was not
an act of terrorism; the other likely scenarios are a pilot suicide attempt,
the piracy of the plane for some kind of economic reason or the commandeering
of the aircraft by someone with an idiosyncratic motive. Tension and conflict with
religion underpinnings were made even problematic with media reportage that
feeds on the dramatic, the gory and the tragic. Is CNN pandering to voyeurism
for higher ratings and wider circulation?
Just because it is a Malaysia
flight and flew by Muslims so now the religion stories are escalated. I have
noticed that religion stories are routinely judged and framed by the media to,
albeit alternatively, misrepresent and disrespect the essence of what adherents
of different faiths believe in. This might blow your mind but not every Muslim
is a terrorist, just like every Christian is not in the Westboro Baptist Church.
So, keep your 9/11 racism post to yourself (I highly doubt about that either).
At this time, the whole world is
focusing on the missing flight and some idiots would not let themselves to be
left out without speculations, countless jokes and memes about this. The movement
is something like this; one created a speculation, within seconds, the
speculations were broadcasted to the fifteen hundred plus people who followed
him on Twitter. Within an hour, two dozen others used Twitter to share their
speculations. Thousands of negative speculations ensued. The speculations
snowballed. Crazy ain’t it?
This is not a celluloid world,
bogeys. We are speaking of 239 lives. 239 for you might just a number, until
you consider them individually. We are speaking of the families who are now
waiting with myriad hopes and prayers that their loved ones are safe. Detachment
is your privilege but you might want to know that most importantly we are
speaking of humanity.
Long before the sun set on 8th March 2014, a hashtag was
born on Twitter that soon started trending globally #PrayForMH370.
I have never been on an airplane. But a lot of friends told me that
MAS hospitality is endearing and it warms the cockles of everyone’s heart on
board. Each time it lands back in Kuala Lumpur, they will hear such
announcement is made:
“To our passengers, welcome to Malaysia. To Malaysians, welcome
home."
I pine to say the same thing to you.
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