The 20th and 21st centuries brought about among other changes, the categorizing of people into two, human beings and numbers. The basic difference between the two is that when a tragedy befalls the human category the world is shattered by grief, whereas those considered numbers are simply numbers and their misery and deprivation are completely ignored.

There was no compassion for the toddlers who were orphaned

The massacre of Palestinians since decades have never caused outrage on the part of the world and the people killed were simply numbers, not human beings with families and the right to a life. There was no compassion for the toddlers who were orphaned and no pity for the unfortunate fathers carrying small coffins.

The mothers whose children have been killed are never interviewed and the dead people are mere numbers and not human beings to be mourned.

Gaza is a land where adults are deprived of hope and children of childhood. A very common sight is small children being pulled away by armed Israeli soldiers on their way to school and their mothers being pushed and pummeled. The mothers whose children have been killed are never interviewed and the dead people are mere numbers and not human beings to be mourned. On the contrary, the death of a single Israeli or American soldier is considered a tragedy, throwing the entire West into a state of mourning and a deadly determination to punish the perpetrator.

The ongoing Hamas Israel conflict is a true example of this mindset, since Israeli casualties have thrown the west into a frenzy of revenge and their interviews advocating savage retaliation upon the civilians of Gaza makes one wonder if we are actually in the 21st century or have we slipped back into the stone ages, where savagery reigned supreme and there were no rules and boundaries.

The people killed however were never remembered as human beings but simply as numbers or collateral damage.

The highlight of the last few decades have been the invasions led by the super power, which left millions dead and the remaining millions maimed. The people killed however were never remembered as human beings but simply as numbers or collateral damage, as the word collateral damage is only used for the citizens of the countries, which have been destroyed by the super power. A few years back Tony Blair, an ardent supporter of USA’s war hungry designs expressed remorse because the Iraq invasion led to the death of 179 British soldiers, however the millions of Iraqis killed without a reason, played no part in his remorse and were not considered worth mentioning.

The West needs to be asked what factors turn a human life into a mere number.

The West needs to be asked what factors turn a human life into a mere number and is it necessary for a person to belong to a certain country or religion to be to be given the status of a human being. For them human life has become absolutely expendable and while taking drastic steps they are completely indifferent to the crimes against humanity their actions might entail.