Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Tsunami

There's not anything I have to add to the incredible sadness of this enormous disaster, and the media has started to do a pretty good job of covering it (I was afraid that they wouldn't). This article from MSNBC.com talks about our memories when it comes to natural disasters, and I was reminded of the earthquake last year in the Iranian city of Bam that killed 30,000 people. That got precious little coverage. Some might say that it was because the earthquake was comparatively not that big, but I don't think so. I don't even know if people know that it happened, but it had an astronomical death toll, and it was a blip in the media.

This disaster has gotten better coverage, certainly, but I can't help but feel like the people here in America don't really feel much about it. We'd expect the world to cry for us, but we can't really spare anything but a half-hearted, "That's so sad," when talking about this disaster. True, it's not as huge a thing because it's not a terrorist attack or something, but still.....a little compassion wouldn't hurt, right?

Ethnocentricity rocks.

Fargus...