Life, ooh life

It all comes down to basic, simple values. Life has no intrinsic colour nor tribe. Not even a nationality. It isn't inherently Maidugurian or Courcourounnesian. It is just LIFE. Humanitarian principles that urge global intervention to the point of contravening another nation's sovereignty are based on this underlying consensus. Life is to be prioritised above all other concerns and differences. When reduced to the basest, that is our shared commonality and it means the same thing everywhere.

But that is clearly an assumption.

When its loss in one part of the globe carries little to no significance in contrasting comparison to global reaction to its loss elsewhere, an oft-neglected issue of significance returns to the debate. Are some lives more important, are some lives of more value than others?

We may have to agree that they are. There is something of geolocation that places an extra veneer of importance to one life somewhere but not to several hundreds, nay thousands, elsewhere. It has nothing to do with the character of the one who loses his or her right to life. It isn't related to the person's innocence either. It's just about where you are in the world. Probably also about which passport has your name on it too. It is about how bad your government is. Or better still, how insensitive your countrymen and women are (that is why little importance is placed on collateral damage in warfare, yea?)

It is on these accidents (these qualities and characteristics of differentiation) rather than the substance of your essence as a human person that hang the value of your life. And since these characteristics of differentiation are unwholesome in that part of the world where you exist, shea butter (that fat extracted from the nut of the African shea tree) is of more value than your life.

It doesn't matter the content of your character nor the moral reticence of your upbringing. Your life is forfeit. If you like bi masquerade or bi defender of the Western weltanschauung, na di same thing. Whether your unfortunate passing gets a mention in the news or not is beside the point. The value on your life just didn't measure up. Finish.

Next time, please endeavour to be conceived and born in a better location. Because principles aren't all they're made to be. They are coloured by a prism of other realities; of bad governance, of uncaring countrymen, of socioeconomic paralysis, of moral somersaults, of nationalistic self interests and of religious jingoism. Those and many more determine how low or high a value is attributed to your life.

Ooh, and don't forget a better passport too. You'd thank me later.

Footnote
There is also the difference losing someone brings to the picture. When you meet those who have endured loss and whose sense of belonging are shaken by the strangeness of the coldness of their own countrymen to their predicament (whilst identifying with similar foreign losses), it strikes you. A reaction to loss of any life is only human. The deeper and closer it is to heart, the more emotional. It, no doubt, helps the bereaved as your solidarity helps with their fortitude.

I decline to define what a selective reaction to loss of life makes one. And the effects on the selectively neglected bereaved. I might go overboard as usual.