Monday, January 03, 2005
Attack of the Killer Tsunamis
So, how long till they make a crappy made for TV movie about tsunamis? Ok ok, I'm not trying to make light of the situation there, but at this point, with the body count at 141,000 and still rising, it's almost impossible to wrap your head around the numbers involved. This might become one of deadliest incidents in the history of mankind, possibly surpassing the Hiroshima bomb (which killed approximately 230,000), but not a 1970 hurricane/cyclone in Bangladesh (which killed approximately 300,000).
Could anything really have been done? Well, the obvious answer is no. Not until the countries affected became rich enough to have less densely populated regions, infrastructure that could have handled an emergency broadcast, as well as stronger buildings, better emergency responses, and better medical care. So aside from a totally unified and globalized world, I don't think anything could have been done.
I like to think one of the things this blog is about is taking a look at the media coverage and filtering it through our own eyes. In that light, there are a few things I'd like to point out.
-The media has not done a terrible job of covering it; but I just can't shake the feeling that most people in the media are just going through the motions. And here come the 9/11 references, but the coverage just isn't as ubiquitous, and it seems really detached. Granted, the tsunamis hit at different times, and there weren't as many cameras around (nor has all the footage come in). But it seems like it's a matter of 'if it didn't happen to America, it didn't really happen.'
-I can't necessarily blame the media for the focus on the U.S., either. I mean, the Chicago Tribune published a "Chicago Connection" blurb the day after the tsunami hit, telling about how a person from Chicago was probably dead, as if that made it more real. For some people, I suppose it does. But I guess I have a fault with this technique in general. Remember the 1998 embassy bombings? The first few times I heard the report, it went something like this: "The U.S. embassy in Nairobi was bombed, 16 Americans are dead." This led me to believe that it was a relatively minor incident. What they neglected to mention was that another 230 people were dead who weren't Americans. When I visited Kenya a few months later, I saw first hand how destructive it was; buildings destroyed, windows shattered in a half-mile radius. If we could just get off the notion that American lives are worth more, it would probably do a lot to help people think globally.
-Along the same lines, I noticed Yahoo! and a few other sites being inordinately focused on Jet Li and Petra Nemcova fates that day. I guess celebrity lives are also worth more. Thank god, because I really need to see the sequels to Cradle 2 the Grave and Romeo Must Die. And Nemcova is hot, right? We can always use hot people.
-Photographs. My brother pointed this out, but how come it seems with any disaster they just slap a photo of some woman crying over her dead rellatives? Do we really need to see the human suffering every time? Is that all there is, people crying? I guess that we do, it sort of brings us into the scene. But it seems like they could just take any stock photo of 'person in distress' and reuse it for any disaster. Maybe I'm just sick and demented, but I sort of wanted to see more pictures of the actual damage.
There's not much more to say. Like I said, the media coverage has been decent. That's just my take on it. 141,000 and rising. Wow.
Could anything really have been done? Well, the obvious answer is no. Not until the countries affected became rich enough to have less densely populated regions, infrastructure that could have handled an emergency broadcast, as well as stronger buildings, better emergency responses, and better medical care. So aside from a totally unified and globalized world, I don't think anything could have been done.
I like to think one of the things this blog is about is taking a look at the media coverage and filtering it through our own eyes. In that light, there are a few things I'd like to point out.
-The media has not done a terrible job of covering it; but I just can't shake the feeling that most people in the media are just going through the motions. And here come the 9/11 references, but the coverage just isn't as ubiquitous, and it seems really detached. Granted, the tsunamis hit at different times, and there weren't as many cameras around (nor has all the footage come in). But it seems like it's a matter of 'if it didn't happen to America, it didn't really happen.'
-I can't necessarily blame the media for the focus on the U.S., either. I mean, the Chicago Tribune published a "Chicago Connection" blurb the day after the tsunami hit, telling about how a person from Chicago was probably dead, as if that made it more real. For some people, I suppose it does. But I guess I have a fault with this technique in general. Remember the 1998 embassy bombings? The first few times I heard the report, it went something like this: "The U.S. embassy in Nairobi was bombed, 16 Americans are dead." This led me to believe that it was a relatively minor incident. What they neglected to mention was that another 230 people were dead who weren't Americans. When I visited Kenya a few months later, I saw first hand how destructive it was; buildings destroyed, windows shattered in a half-mile radius. If we could just get off the notion that American lives are worth more, it would probably do a lot to help people think globally.
-Along the same lines, I noticed Yahoo! and a few other sites being inordinately focused on Jet Li and Petra Nemcova fates that day. I guess celebrity lives are also worth more. Thank god, because I really need to see the sequels to Cradle 2 the Grave and Romeo Must Die. And Nemcova is hot, right? We can always use hot people.
-Photographs. My brother pointed this out, but how come it seems with any disaster they just slap a photo of some woman crying over her dead rellatives? Do we really need to see the human suffering every time? Is that all there is, people crying? I guess that we do, it sort of brings us into the scene. But it seems like they could just take any stock photo of 'person in distress' and reuse it for any disaster. Maybe I'm just sick and demented, but I sort of wanted to see more pictures of the actual damage.
There's not much more to say. Like I said, the media coverage has been decent. That's just my take on it. 141,000 and rising. Wow.
# posted by Stuart @ 11:20 PM 
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So I go to cnn.com, and on the main page of CNN is a headline "Searching for the children," an article about the new tsunami-related hot item: that tens of thousands of children have been orphaned and there are fears (justified? who knows?) that they will be sold into slavery.
Anyways, the kid CNN has chosen is a little blonde haired boy. Now my original reaction was "Holy Shit, I thought we were over the Aryan superiority complex." It turns out this is a real missing child, one of the many Swedish tourists who lost there lives in the tsunami disaster. (The tsunami was the worst disaster in terms of loss of life in Sweden's history. THAT is incredible.)
Still, I wonder why CNN chose to showcase this child. After all there are many more Sri Lankans, Indonesians, and Thai people who felt the brunt of this disaster. than tourists, and who can't go home to comfortable lives since there is no home left. This blonde-haired child is not representative of the people who are sufferring. Why then did CNN choose him?
Anyways, the kid CNN has chosen is a little blonde haired boy. Now my original reaction was "Holy Shit, I thought we were over the Aryan superiority complex." It turns out this is a real missing child, one of the many Swedish tourists who lost there lives in the tsunami disaster. (The tsunami was the worst disaster in terms of loss of life in Sweden's history. THAT is incredible.)
Still, I wonder why CNN chose to showcase this child. After all there are many more Sri Lankans, Indonesians, and Thai people who felt the brunt of this disaster. than tourists, and who can't go home to comfortable lives since there is no home left. This blonde-haired child is not representative of the people who are sufferring. Why then did CNN choose him?
cnn at it again - tonight a long story on tv tonight about a family from the netherlands caught in the tsunami.
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# posted by 
: 9:22 PM
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