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Original poster

aibu to wonder why last Monday's kidnapping of 110 schoolgirls by Boko Haran has hardly been mentioned on UK news

36 replies

Jayfee · 01/03/2018 09:47

Why has it hardly been mentioned?? I have seen nothing on tv BBC or ITV news or heard on LBC? Just heard a brief mention on bbc radio 4 and a longer piece this morning. 110 girls abducted from school at lunchtime in Nigeria last week Monday? Have I just missed it on the main news progs?

OP posts:
littlemissrain · 01/03/2018 10:12

I had heard about it at the time, I think a saw a news alert.

But you're right - it's been mentioned very little and it's awful.

I suppose the attitude is that it's happened once before so people will be less interested second time round.

Perendinate · 01/03/2018 10:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsElvis · 01/03/2018 10:15

?! I didn't even realise this happened. Off to read up now

HollyBayTree · 01/03/2018 10:17

I heard it on the radio.

But national news will always take precedence over international news. Uk people will be less interested in overseas news than their own national news. It is impossible to report all news.

bittern79 · 01/03/2018 10:28

No, YANBU at all.

It's not even on the BBC World page - only on the Africa page. if it happened in the USA we'd never hear the end of it.

Why are African lives any less important? They're not.

I suppose the attitude is that it's happened once before so people will be less interested second time round.

By that token, you'd only 'need' to hear about one terrorist attack or one US school shooting too - but we don't. We hear about them all.

Helpimfalling · 01/03/2018 10:37

It's the trick of the media

Fucking shit

They do there best to cover this stuff up and not shout about it makes me angry

Emboo19 · 01/03/2018 10:47

I heard it on radio 1 news when it happened and then again a day or two ago. I think sometimes it’s if there’s not much to report on it, unfortunately if not much is known it’s just a case of ‘still missing’.
To be honest though I didn’t hear anything about the Florida shooting, only since with the changes to gun law protests etc. I could have just not been in the world of the living for a few days though and missed it (I’ve had a few assignments due, so I’ve been busy).

BikeRunSki · 01/03/2018 10:48

Brexit
Snow

HollyBayTree · 01/03/2018 11:13

The daily bombings and beheadings aren't in the news, they are so utterly commonplace we are desnsitised to them.

You cant possibly keep up with all the world news. If everything of significance to locals was reported abroad, we'd have endless news. most of it pointless.

Do you think they care in Brazil about our snow? No, do we care about their summer? No. Do you think Vanuatu cared about our bomb attacks? No more than we care about their money laundering.

If you want to be informed about largely irrelevent to mainland UK politics, then thats your choice to search it out. Politically we will not be involved.

And No we dont hear about all school shootings in the USA - there have been 142 since 2015 they havent all infiltrated our news www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/1/142-school-shootings-sandy-hook-massacre-newtown-c/

HerFemaleness · 01/03/2018 11:15

I've literally only heard about this from seeing this thread in AIBU. YADNBU.

BarbarianMum · 01/03/2018 11:18

At least we hear about some of the girls. They've taken hundreds if boys over the years and not a peep.

Birdsgottafly · 01/03/2018 11:22

Because it's only when White women, from non-poverty backgrounds, of the right religious leanings, are sexually assaulted/kidnapped/raped/forced to give birth etc that the World gives a shit.

FissionChips · 01/03/2018 11:23

Cos they be black.

Fekko · 01/03/2018 11:25

That's unfair - the Chibok girls were all over the news for a long time and I still see reports when a girl/woman is found or escapes.

Peekaboo3 · 01/03/2018 11:28

Because we are in the west, and it's not Western news. Why do we need to know?

Do you think African and middle east news channels/outlets would give a shit about reporting about 100 English white girls going missing?

Would they bollocks! Hmm

YABU.

VileyRose · 01/03/2018 11:29

I didn't know either. Just awful :(

SpiceRack · 01/03/2018 11:37

because it's snowing and that's been more important...

I hadn't even heard of this wtf

SilverySurfer · 01/03/2018 12:22

I tend to agree with HollyBayTree and Peekaboo3. It has been on the news and of course is dreadful but there is nothing any of us can do so what more is there to say?

haba · 01/03/2018 12:27

It has been on R4.

It's more that it's poor people's children that have been taken, that we don't hear much about it. Pretty sure if they were the children of wealthy Nigerians then there would be a lot more coverage. Poor people have no voices, particularly on a global scale.

user838383 · 01/03/2018 12:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SnibbleAgain · 01/03/2018 12:30

They really ought to be reporting on the atrocities as a piece.

Children can be taken and the girls are for sexual slavery and the boys are forced to fight.
Or the girls are taken and the boys are murdered.

I do think that being raped and forcibly impregnated and forced to give birth is absolutely grotesque, and some of these girls are young.

However, that doesn't mean that what is done to the boys is a walk in the park.

The suffering of the girls and women in these situation does need to be highlighted though - rape as a weapon of war is only being talked about in the last couple of decades, historically the fate of women and girls who were in the path of >> whatever, troops from wherever, and of any and all sides, including the "saviours / protectors" >> was NOT MENTIONED AT ALL.

I have heard about this on the news today, a quick google tells me 10,000 boys are missing, this has not been given attention as far as I can see.

HollyBayTree · 01/03/2018 12:32

Yes - anyone know if the Rochdale grooming made the news in Abuja or Lagos? Of course it didn't.

BrendasUmbrella · 01/03/2018 12:58

This does have an indirect link to Trump though, and our press does tend to like those stories. Chad has one of the strongest military forces in the region and had Boko Haram on the back foot, they had lost a lot of territory - and then Trump issued his travel ban, including Chad who had been working with American forces. And of course the "shithole countries" remark was the cherry on the cake. Chad started withdrawing their fighters and Boko Haram came straight back like a weed. If the USA had a President with the tiniest drop of diplomacy in him, those girls would probably not have been kidnapped.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-us-travel-ban-chad-passport-paper-boko-haram-a8008306.html

BrendasUmbrella · 01/03/2018 12:59

*With the Americans, not with American forces

Growingboys · 01/03/2018 13:02

I agree with HollyBayTree and Peekaboo.

YABU