“If I don’t see it, it’s not real.”

-Is what I tell myself while covering my eyes with my sleeve in the middle of a horror movie. In a case such as Aylan Kurdi’s, the horror lies in the circumstance's honesty. Don’t bother questioning yourself about this. Yes, you have seen this picture. And yes, it is real.

The photo of the small three-year-old boy’s lifeless body on a shore side found its way on all social media platforms within seconds. At that moment, the world came to a uniformed consensus of guilt, anger, and sadness. I understand the message behind this image, and I wholeheartedly see all the sympathy and rage given the situation. The cruel truth is, this isn’t the first time something like this is happening. This is only the first time it’s been seen by the social public (Raghavan & Tharoor, 2015). This is a human being.

I’ll admit it repulsed me seeing this photo for the first time. How could anyone have posted this, let alone taken this, let alone allowed this? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this was exactly why I was seeing the photo on my screen in the first place. I understood the hunger for needing attention on this matter. As the ethic of care suggests, caring about something is far more important than deciding to do what is right or wrong. To be fair, the only wrongdoing in publishing this photo is the fact that it was taken to begin with. This is the decision to put care in spreading awareness and opening the eyes of oblivion.

Here, I would’ve chosen to publish this photo. I’ll take the backlash. I’ll take the criticism. These are real things happening to real people. You can refuse to acknowledge it, but the matter of the fact is that it’s there and I’ve put it there. My morals might bruise for posting it, but yours would blister for ignoring it.

Reference:

Raghavan, S., & Tharoor, I. (2015, September 03). The saga of the Syrian family whose 3-year-old turned up dead on a Turkish beach. Retrieved September 30, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/the-saga-of-the-syrian-family-whose-3-year-old-turned-up-dead-on-a-turkish-beach/2015/09/03/4a82ed56-5251-11e5-b225-90edbd49f362_story.html