All of these are just big words and it might sound like we are just making a salad and the whole thing is simply implies irrelevant, weak language or poor knowledge… What we encounter recently for the last I do not know “number” of years (or forever) is simply PR on all levels… rarely we are having media to inform. Simply we are in a constant and in an endless process of shaping our opinions and without feeling it because the audience is easily programmed. Media is biased! This is what is generally believed to be the case and a well-known idea that it keeps on crossing our minds each time we are concerned with something and we have to monitor different media outlets in order to formulate our own responsible thinking/idea about what is going on.
Also, the audience is emotional and “media-controller” knows this very well, therefore, it is very easy to manipulate the general public opinion in order to make the upcoming phase already serving the hidden agenda for those who are leading our ways through policy, politics and the rest of what is serving the fact that certain part is overpowering another one… I am not sure how realistic is the argument when we say that violent extremist groups who are involved in killing-acts are the only form that is legitimate to be considered violent and horrible… But, when we see and read on “media”; some posts that are actually leading to violent acts –eventually- is in default mode to be considered as a legitimate form of freedom of expression?
At any time there is the possibility to eliminate the other and by any mean, written, verbal, in a drawing, implication, is also violent extremism… because the results are the same and because “legitimacy” is actually a word was invented by the same people who are seeking the road! In fact, this is the easy part of the story, the visible part… The tragic part is the invisible one, which means when these big PR profit-making companies are actually shaping our opinions and just making the road so sleek and empty so all the BIG decision would be made and all of these BIG decisions = BIG POLITICS are about overpowering and money with the blessings of the already shaped public opinion… or to be more accurate; opinions on all levels! What is the perfect story to aid this PR personnel in “shaping opinions” regarding certain “needs” then a story such as the drowning child on the shore is a perfect one? At first, this picture was spread on social media all of a sudden and few hour later, the whole world was talking about it… and it trended on all hashtags and in many languages!?… typical!
The cool question to be asked, who actually took the picture? And who were the first ones to get hold of it? And WHY? Anyway, the story went and it provided good content for media for some good time and then it died until it served again with the controversial cartoon of Charlie Hebdo! Charlie Hebdo in itself is the perfect emotional trigger, just like an image of a drawn innocent baby. And each time, the world is in this continuous debate to ensure over and over that there is no space for dialogue, for rational thinking, for global humanity…etc and we are drowning over and over in the same circle of PR! Naji Al-Ali was shot in London for his cartoons and we did not see the world reacting towards him as happened with Charlie Hebdo, this is a valid point to think of; how current media (and old media) is functioning? Or how we can understand the world when it remains silent in front of all the killing against the Palestinians in the last year (at least)? Why this “killing”, organs trafficking and occupation against Palestinians is not considered violent extremism? Why are extremist violent groups always associated with Islam were, in fact, a number of young people from Europe actually joining such groups? My question is how much PR we live in without recognizing that and instead of this epiphany we are drowning in relentless arguments that lead to more tension instead of understanding and human solidarity!?.
Suha Ayyash
