When is it an act of terror?

- Let’s do a little recap. - I like nightcaps better. But it’s early morning, so let’s go, I’m game. April 2012, 77 killed, where? - Norway - Anders Beiring Breivik. Worst act of terror perpetrated by one individual.

- Not an act of terror but a mass shooting. - How is that? - We’ll get there in a minute. - April 28, 1996, number of dead - 35; same country June 23, 2000, number of dead 15…and I am taking it randomly here. November 18, 2011, number of dead - eleven; and for the clue, the last one recorded January 20, 2017, six dead and 30 injured. Any clue?

- Err, that must be down under, Australia.

- Excellent. Didn’t know you’d get that.

- I remember a man by the curious name of Dimitrious Gargasoulas who drove a stolen car into people.

- Good memory. Now, March 22, 2017 - car attack, at least 30 people injured one a police officer, stabbed by assailant.

- Simple, London a terrorist known by the name Khalid Masoud.

- Now you get it that was an act of terror.

- How is it different from the others?

- We’ll get to that soon. Let’s go back down memory lane. September 2008, Kauhajoki school shooting - 11 deaths; Sello mass shooting - six deaths all in 2009; and last one resulting in two deaths was in May 26, 2012. Clue, the place for the last one was Hyvinkaa - any guesses as to what country all these happened? - Must be in Tokyo, Japan. - No, but another clue, its in Western Europe.

- Hyvinkaa, Kauhajoki, Sello…I am lost here. - Okay, - its Finland. - Whao. The names sounded Japanese to me.

- Next one, seven killed, 17 injured August 30, 2010, gunman later committed suicide.

- I think this was Bratislava in Slovakia?

- You’re a genius. Let’s leave out Israel with its trouble with Hamas, Fatah etc.

- Because Israel is special case, next you’ll leave out the US too.

- We won’t leave out the US; so let me die first before you bury me. According to the group motherjones.com, between January and July this year alone 22 have died in six mass shootings. I’m not counting the dispensable black folks who are constantly used as target practice by a racist police. But this Las Vegas shooting tops the cart of mindless violence not described as acts of terror.

- And you left out Africa with its 15% of the world population; then India and China with 37% of the global population.

- Thanks for the digression. Now, take this in - when a shooting occurs in Africa, it hardly makes news - do you know why? - Why? - How do you do the count between the ones killed by government agents and the social malaise that keeps the continent down? But if you think you can track it, please start from your own country. Now let’s go back to India and China. - Africans are disposable? - Please go back and read my piece ‘The Colour of Disaster Coverage’ published a few weeks ago. India falls in the same category as Africa and China gets in the news for official executions, as mass shootings are rare. For now, let’s focus on what’s important - this Los Angeles shootings. The death toll is bound to rise. - Very sad day for humanity. - Indeed. Now, let’s not forget that this piece is to sensitize us to how global leaders describe these events in the views of the Western world. President Trump, often quick to describe smaller incidents in other western countries as acts of terror described this one as ‘an act of pure evil’ - shikenan! The Pope called it as ‘a senseless tragedy’; Britain’s Boris Johnson called it ‘indiscriminate violence’. Note that the word terror did not feature in any of the descriptive lexicon.

- Doesn’t matter - its terror pure and simple. It was perpetrated to shock and awe, to cause panic and create a sense of insecurity. It was launched against innocent people with whom the attacker had no prior contact or spat.

- Is that your definition of terror? - Yes. - Wrong! It’s not terror until the Trumps, Mays and others of this world say so. It is called mass shooting - pure and simple.

- So, what distinguishes mass shooting from terror?

- Well, when the perpetrator or shooter has Middle East roots, usually brown in skin colour; very often with any link no matter how remote with the religion of Islam and the victims are innocent western people. - That’s linguistic racism. - No my friend, you see, native speakers of a language have a right to define a word as they please. That kind of privilege is not given to those who borrow the language. Here is the rule of the thumb, when an attack takes place anywhere in the west, do not be quick to call it an act of terror until someone like Trump, Theresa May, Justin Trudeau or any leader of the new world order have described it as such. Because the description of terror varies depending on the circumstances, the place and the people involved.