Collective to personal, single to million

All we see in the news is how the countries are bombarding each other back and forth, who has more chances to win, or how many people were dead during the air raid.

But that’s not what we should focus on. 

What we need to care about is individuals’ lives. In BBC’s news for the 22nd of August, it said, “So far, more than 530 people have been reported killed in Lebanon.” Some readers might be awed by the large number of casualties, and some might be relieved to see the relatively small number of casualties compared to previous wars.

If there is only one casualty generated from the strike, like when the Israeli military hit Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in the Bekaa Valley overnight, then should we be appeased by the fact that there is ‘only’ one person dead? 

Let’s think of it this way. 34-year-old Yohanes Azar was killed in the raid on  Israel. She was the mother of 4 kids and the teacher of the local school who was respected and loved. Of course, this person is made up, but does this make you feel different? Does it make you more empathetic or at least more sympathetic to the situation?

I believe it would. Knowing the personal narrative hits differently than when only knowing the collective numbers. And once we are acquainted with the victim, we cannot forget the situations they are going through. That is the reason why we need a platform. We need to know the personal stories, not the collective numbers from the news. It is the only way to make a single voice into a million voices.

Written by Somyung Lee