The Arena:
A little far from the town of Röszke, a short man is sprinting in a field along the Hungarian – Serbian border. He is holding a cloth bag in one hand and his crying, 7-year-old son, in the other.
The man, Osama Abdul Mohsen, has $600 stacked in his underwear. A physical education and soccer coach by profession and a truck driver’s son – now, an unfortunate Syrian refugee. The date is September 8th, 2015.
He and his son Zaid are just two of the thousands of refugees running from Syria.
In a chaotic and commotion filled setting, there are Hungarian police officers, media personnel. With almost 1000 to 1500 people assembled in the area, the air is full of tension and screams.
Mohsen and his son had slept in the open field when the temperature dropped close to zero. Zaid had caught a cough and was running a mild fever too. The blanket that could’ve comforted him was robbed that morning.
Mohsen’s 18-year-old son had already arrived in Germany. He was waiting for the arrival of his father and younger brother from Eastern Syria. Things aren’t as bad since only a blanket was stolen so far. They still have some money with them to sustain themselves, and above all, they are living and breathing.
The Twist:
On September 8th, Tuesday, things go south. They had not been able to move forward due to the restraint from the police and Mohsen was becoming desperate. He somehow tricks the police and runs, only to be tripped by a camerawoman named Petra Lazlo. Mohsen stumbles and falls while the petrified Zaid, screams.
Mohsen quickly gets up and yells at the police officer standing nearby, “ That is the act of a dog!”, assuming him to be the offender.
The Act of Influencer:
Stephan Richter, one of the 30 odd journalists present, worked for the German broadcaster RTL. In the melee, Stephan could not locate his cameramen, and he grabbed his iPhone and captured the incident.
After all the struggle, Mohsen and Zaid, reach a grove safely. By dusk, they start their journey on foot, to Budapest without the slightest hint that their fall was captured in a video.
The same evening, Richter tweets the video for the world to see. The video receives a whopping one million clicks, and after publications pick it, the clicks get amplified furthermore.
Richter, who has carefully tracked the video’s virality on social media, finds out that the video has been viewed 30 to 40 million times.
The video captures the drama that unfolded, in a consumable manner: A refugee runs to safety, a journalist/lady kicks him, the man falls but gets back on his feet.
The video has a moral appeal too: Petra Lazlo transforms the refugee cause. Moreover, she unknowingly changed Mohsen’s fate.
Invitation to Spain:
Miguel Angel Galan is the president of the Spanish association of football coaches, aka Cenafe Escuelas. He happens to watch the video and feels a bond between them; one that colleagues shared.
On his arrival in Germany, Mohsen receives an incredible deal. He gets asked to attend a school for coaches with the promise of employment, language course and an apartment. Mohsen couldn’t ask for more.
A few days pass, and Mohsen is seen taking a picture standing next to soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. Zaid is permitted to join the player in the stadium before a game. Amidst thousands of Syrians dying, Mohsen’s family was fortunate to turn their lives around. Thanks to an influencer & a candid video that went viral.
Let’s decipher the reason this video received worldwide attention –
• Everybody has a fascination for stories
• Stories tend to remain in our memory for a long time!
• Stories get transmitted
• The storyteller should be authentic, credible, and he/she should, first of all, believe in the story!
It helped the video go viral as the person, a reporter who posted it shared what he saw. Stephan Richter was an influencer.
People who watched the video were emotionally moved; they passed that message on to others, telling and retelling the story by sharing the video. That word of mouth reached millions more as the video went viral. The journalist Stephan Richter who has watched the way the video got shared claims it has been viewed some 30-40 million times.
