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Beirut Port: A Crime Scene, Not A Photo Shoot Setting
Less than a month after one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in recent history, many people in Lebanon have already scampered to the site of the devastating blast at the Beirut port to take pictures and selfies.
What are they trying to commemorate exactly? All the lives that were lost? The thousands who were injured and scarred for the rest of their lives? The hundreds of thousands of families who lost their homes? What is there to “picture” exactly?
While many beautiful groups were on the site of the blast the following morning to pick up the pieces and provide relief to those in need, we still have a portion of the population who are completely desensitized to other people’s pain and suffering.
Until we learn to empathize with one another, we will never have hope for this country.
The Beirut port is a crime scene, and the perpetrators are both the ruling class’ criminal negligence and anyone who is treating it like a photo shoot setting.
A Lebanese woman uses her mobile to take selfies with the damaged grain silos on the background at the Beirut port following a huge explosion that rocked the city in Beirut, Lebanon. 📷 epa-efe / Wael Hamzeh#beirut #selfie #beirutblast #lebanon #epaphotos #photojournalism pic.twitter.com/BADDeFyuj8
— european pressphoto agency (@epaphotos) August 24, 2020
What are they trying to commemorate exactly? All the lives that were lost? The thousands who were injured and scarred for the rest of their lives? The hundreds of thousands of families who lost their homes? What is there to “picture” exactly?
A site which destroyed a city and killed hundreds of innocent lives. A site which may still have bodies or body parts under the rubble. A site which shattered the dreams and hope of millions…. Last thing I would think about is taking a selfie there #Beirut #BeirutBlast pic.twitter.com/xeuFWO7JhJ
— Rami Chakroun (@rchakroun) August 24, 2020
While many beautiful groups were on the site of the blast the following morning to pick up the pieces and provide relief to those in need, we still have a portion of the population who are completely desensitized to other people’s pain and suffering.
Until we learn to empathize with one another, we will never have hope for this country.
The Beirut port is a crime scene, and the perpetrators are both the ruling class’ criminal negligence and anyone who is treating it like a photo shoot setting.
