Paris Attack Artwork

Mrs. Rose assigned us a task asking us to find artworks responding to the Paris attacks that happened on the evening of November 13th, 2015, killing at least 128 people. I was extremely shocked to hear about this tragedy as I am sure many people around the world were too. Immediately, people started using hashtags such as #PrayForParis #PortOuverte and #jesuisParis to show their support for Paris. Social media outlets such as Facebook created a filter of the Paris flag to put over your profile picture and Tumblr changed their icon to show sympathy for Paris. Also, major cities such as Toronto, New York, London, Washington, etc. lit up their famous tourist attractions with the colours, blue, white & red to show their respect for the lives lost that night.

This made me wonder why this type of reaction didn't occur when the same thing happened a couple of days before in Lebanon when there was two suicide bombings in the capital, Beirut, or anywhere in the Middle East for that matter. The media was not nearly as responsive to these attacks as it was to those in France.

So I chose this art piece as a response to the crisis. 

Jerameel Lu is a very talented pencil artist & posted this image to show his disapproval of the media's response to the tragic attacks in Paris. He wrote on his Facebook page, "this piece is only against the almost unequal treatment of the world media on every terrorism attack." The world media only focussed on the attacks in Paris when the same thing happens in the Middle East on a daily & there's no filter on Facebook to show support, or no alternation on the Spotify front page or special hashtags used. Where's the international outrage? When it happens in those countries it’s a page 8 news in a C list newspaper, when it happens in Western countries it’s front page for years and years to come, and there are anniversaries for it. It just doesn't seem right to me.

#prayfortheworld