Sidi Ifni – Moroccan media hasn’t shown any empathy upon the occurrence of the worst-ever, deadly bus accident near Marrakech.
Now, we must be surer than ever before that the media, which is supposed to defend innocent victims and lessen their agony by sharing in it with their fellows, has underestimated human life and ignored the calamities befalling Moroccans every day.
We must also be sure that the media, which is supposed to mourn the dead in such hard times, has given us the impression that everything is going well, especially through the music shows that were broadcast the day after the tragic accident that shocked Moroccans.
Human life isn’t valued in Morocco. We can notice a number of Moroccans facing daily brushes with death in traffic accidents with no reaction on the part of the Moroccan media. For the media, the dead do not matter; only the living do, because they are the source of a fortune. If human life mattered to our media, it would devote hours upon hours to mourning the 44 dead victims of the worst-ever accident and sympathizing with the families of the victims.
But, as usual, while Moroccan families were weeping over their losses, our media was busy showing funny series and risqué music videos. Is this media representing Moroccans, who are busy mourning the tragic calamity? Aren’t the feelings of the families of the victims worth taking into account? Our media has shown, once again, how inhumane, impassive, irresponsible and inconsiderate it is.
Another sign that we are playing with human life is that every time a traffic accident occurs in Morocco, ambulances usually arrive at the spot very late. We must admit that there are times when many injured victims pass away just because an ambulance arrives late or because an ambulance doctor is carefree. Because of negligence, the physical effects of many traffic accidents on victims worsen. Whenever we go to hospitals, we find that human life isn’t a big deal and the blood shed due to accidents is commonplace.
Yet, it appears that only the blood of Moroccans is cheap, whereas the blood of foreigners is expensive here in Morocco. Just think of the terrorist explosion of Argana restaurant in Marrakech last year when 17 innocent clients died, three of them Moroccan and the rest foreigners.
We still vividly remember that Moroccan media made much ado about it and many senior Moroccan officials offered their condolences to the families of the foreigners. Even at mosques, we were told by the Ministry of Religious affairs to pray for the dead, despite the fact that there were only three Muslims among the 17 victims. It is really odd that we value the life of others more than our lives. Is it because we are selfless by nature or because we are showing others a false image about our selflessness? Because our media has never been selfless, its an especially interesting question.
In reality, this simply gives us the impression that the life of Moroccans in Morocco isn’t as valuable as that of foreigners. If human life meant a fortune to us, we would not forget tragic accidents so quickly and easily forgive those responsible. We would learn from these accidents and take precautions against future calamities. Unfortunately, no sooner do we forget one calamity then another one occurs. And, it is the same old story: neither the Moroccan media nor we, Moroccans, do something about the issue and try to learn the lesson the victims failed to learn.
While human life in other non-Muslim countries is the most cherished life, we Moroccan Muslims deem it as nothing but a miserable life that is destined to die an unnatural death. While the life of animals is much cherished in some countries, the lives of Moroccans are no different than the lives of dogs in that the former and the latter meet the same destiny: death owing to negligence.
While blood is a symbol of life in some countries, in Morocco, it’s a symbol of death. While people in some countries continue to weep over the loss of a human body for years, in Morocco, Moroccan media spends only seconds to show the loss of bodies. These deaths are not due to a natural death, but due to a new war, the traffic “war.”
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy.
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