O. M. R. A. N.: The face that slapped the world’s conscience

O. M. R. A. N.: The face that slapped the world’s conscience
Smeared with blood and dust, Omran Daqneesh sat silently in the ambulance’s armchair. His little hands were laying helplessly in his lab. The men outside were yelling frantically while rescuers were busy recovering other bodies from under the rubble. 

It might be difficult for the 3-year-old boy to open his two eyes to recognize what was happening at that dire moment. However, it was that deeply stunned look that highlighted again the horrific truth of the Syrian tragedy which the international community insists on giving a deaf ear.   

Omran could only remember that at that dark night he was playing with his brother and sister in their house in the eastern side of Aleppo when a Russian-made missile fired by an Assad regime warplane reduced the whole place along with its everyday details to ruins in seconds.  

However, unlike hundreds of striking photos of Syrian children who were killed during the past five years of the war launched by Assad regime, the photo of the bloodied and dazed face of Omran went viral on social media yesterday.

The wave of worldwide attention became larger after numerous Syrian advocates and users of social media networks circulated the video of Omran. Some others reproduced the photo brilliantly in many contexts such as placing Omran sitting behind a desk in the Arab League or between Obama and Putin to reflect how inactive and inhumane the international community and world leaders are towards the unprecedented brutality of Assad regime. 

International media outlets joined the surge and took its share of the coverage. CNN’s reporter Kate Bolduan who is often expressive and emphatic began to cry while showing the video of Omran; however, after stopping for a while to compose herself, Bolduan commented on the video saying that Omarn’s house was hit by a bomb, an airstrike. The little boy had family members also injured, but the perpetrator of this airstrike is strangely unknown for CNN and Bolduan who said that she doesn’t know “Who is behind it.”

Thus by retelling the same narrative about Syrian victims who have been killed in “violent incidents” without naming openly the only side which possesses the ability to launch airstrikes, the story of Omran is allowed to be repeated since the blame is unfairly distributed between the killer and the victim.  

Omran who was rescued from rubble dazed and confused can be forgotten by the world like Alan Kurdi’s story faded before if the international community and world leaders keep turning their back to the continuous tragedy of the Syrian people.

If no action is taken to stop Assad’s war crimes, the story will be repeated and the amount of shame and disgrace will be further expanding to cover the whole globe.

If the international media keeps covering the wide-scale genocide committed by Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies as a “civil war” in which there are no “good guys” as Robert Fisk said, new videos and photos of other victims like Omran will emerge daily.   

Omran who could miraculously survive this time had the opportunity to stand as an icon for Syrian victimhood while other children who were killed in silence couldn’t make it. However, while waiting for any hope that may disperse Syrians’ worst fears Omran’s helpless hands became more similar to the world’s surrendered hands; his bloodied and dazed face became very much like ours. 

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