5000

Five thousand...
It’s a big number. Really big. Money wise, it is incredibly generous, depending on the currency of course. Yet this is a number that cannot be translated and dealt with like money in any way. 5000 lives are not worth more in England than in Pakistan. 5000 lives…
No perhaps I am wrong, perhaps they have quite a bit in common with money. Perhaps, some would say, 5000 lives are worth more in England than Pakistan, I think this is mostly because we would not, in a heartbeat, have the ability to imagine a religion rob so many lives in so little time in such a civilized place as England. Then again, that is a very common fact in Pakistan. Like money, 500o lives cannot buy happiness, but governing both imply power. One is the cause and the other is the result of destruction. Neither is independent of the other.
So what does 5000 lives mean to us? Its only one of many numbers.
5000 casuelties as a recent result of the Taliban. That’s nothing, the natzis reached a total of 6 million jews. Hurray.
I don’t think the amount matters much. What matters is each life. 6 million Jews, 5000 Pakistani, 13 students as a result of a mentally ruined kid, 1 taken by murder. They can all make me think and feel sorry. Because what 5000 means is 5000 minds, 5000 hopes and dreams, 5000 futures, personalities, families, 5000 souls that can only be mourned for.