ciphergoth | Where are their minds?

but they were presumably turkish, not american and therefore not important. i'm glad i don't have a tv. and why bagpipes?

Indeed, my love. Apparently there was a tidal wave in China three days ago which received minimal media coverage, not to mention the thousands who die needlessly in Africa *every fucking day*. I made several phone calls during the proposed minute of silence. And what the flying fuck have bagpipes got to do with it.?! Of course the WTC deaths were tragic, but why are American lives so much more valuable than anyone else's?

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A quick look with Google suggests that deaths by hunger amount to the equivalent of 10 WTC attacks every day. (PDF converted by Google)

Any idea where I can find out more about this tidal wave? I've done quite a bit of searching but found nothing...

OK, my source (puts on roving cub reporter Jimmy Olsen freckles and grin) was the guy I buy my coffee from outside Streatham station. He is usuallu very reliable - I will ask him again tomorrow.

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There was a picture in yesterday's Metro... if I remember correctly, eleven people were injured. it was a fairly small tidal wave?

The people in my office have just realized that they've missed the official minutes silence that was supposed to be observed at 13:46 and have just voted as to whether we should hold a different one. I voted by leaving the room.

They weren't American, duh!

More seriously, the earthquake was a natural disaster, Sept 11th was the very deliberate cold-hearted attempt to murder at least 20,000 people, succeeding with thousands of them... not to say that the media hasn't gone overboard (they wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't, after all...), but I do feel some form of tribute is justified, at least on this first anniversary.

What I would like to see more a much more balance view of affairs, for example, coverage of the damage America has done to Afghanistan since then. Wishful thinking, I know.

> I would like to see more a much more balance view of affairs, for example, coverage of the damage America has done to Afghanistan

Absolutely.

And wouldn't it be great if the Americans finally stopped trying to get out of cleaning up after Union Carbide's little episode of corporate manslaughter in Bhopal?

There are many places around the world, such as Uganda, Kurdistan (Eastern Turkey), Sierra leone, Colombia, Algeria, and East Timor where many thousands of people have been deliberately and brutally killed or mutilated, during the past couple of years. The difference is:

They were not American, so it doesn't matter, and
At least one side in the hostilities was a regular army, so it's OK.

Sigh! Personally, I had exhausted my 2001 "sympathy for victims of violence" budget before September, and so I was only concerned about civil liberties, etc, when the regrettable incident happened.

Pavlos

I don't know.. the difference is, those attrocities aren't relevant to the lives of those living in the UK. Which doesn't mean there should be no coverage, no information whatsoever, doesn't mean we should pretend it's nothing, but what happened a year ago has changed world politics dramatically. Its given the US an excuse to blatantly interfere with the Middle East and declare open warfare, and many people in the UK were personally touched by the deaths in the US. It was an important day, for all the worst reasons.

Australia remembers the 25th April, a day when hundreds of soldiers were slaughtered in WWI. The UK doesn't think twice about it because it's not relevant here. Sadly the same goes for lots of past tragedies the world over - only the locals care enough to remember.

Something should be done about all those thousands who die of hunger while we throw away uneaten mcdonalds, something should be done about the ongoing wars and violence everywhere, but those issues don't lessen what happened a year ago.

I'm not saying the press aren't overkilling it, but it was a tragedy, it was all those evocative words the press are throwing so blithely about, but I don't want to become cold-hearted about it just because the press is abusing the emotions for their own ratings. I'd rather extent my sympathy and save my rants for bemoaning the actions the US took after Sept 11th, and other real issues.

Sorry for rambling on, this whole issue and people's reactions to it fascinates (and scares) me :)

I don't remember this coverage for the anniversary of the Turkish earthquakes, in which 10,000 people died.

Well for one thing, it didn't happen live on TV which, as any fule know, is the only proof that anything happens at all nowadays. (And not even then - cf. the Gulf War missile attacks). All we get are a few shots of the aftermath of a disaster on the news - a few foreign people looking a bit miserable - rather than wall-to-wall coverage from a well-known location, with people dying who are actually wearing suits, and therefore represent the civilised world.

I was reluctant to turn on the telly this morning but what came on was a very adorable baby elephant. Now children's progamming is over I think I'll leave the telly off for the rest of the week and wait for the sunday paper for some slightly less partisan and gory coverage of what's happening now. They might even mention that tidal wave in China...

I saw Scoobable-Doo this morning while having my breakfast.

(goes to check)

Yup, looks like they're running it at 07:00 - 07:25 BBC2 every weekday morning at the moment.

And yes, it's 'proper' Scooby-doo, no malformed puppy in sight.

Yay!

J

Do you remember, twenty years or so ago, on Not The Nine O'Clock News, Mel Smith and Pamela Stephenson (IIRC) reading the news?

(Roughly:)

Seventy people have died in a train crash in India, but it doesn't matter because that's a long way away and we don't know any of them. Thirteen people have been injured in a bus crash in France, but their English wasn't very good. An airliner has crashed in South Africa. The victims were, in order of importance, two Americans, four South Africans, two Australians and a German."

That should be put back on the TV tonight.

Also, I should make it my business to get hold of the whole run.

There was a great skit back in the early eighties done by the D-Generation (Australian comedy group) where they had a "Racial Adjusted Death Toll counter" behind a news desk, and the announcer would say "10,000 Bangladeshis died in a terrible flood", and the counter would rise by three...

Funny how some 'jokes' don't die, because the truths they are based on don't fade :(

I put it to some of my more jingoistic American acquaintances that :

a) George Bush The First has not yet been brought to court for his role in setting up al Queda
b) The US government had tolerated US corporations such as MacDonalds funding the IRA for decades
c) The US government had funded al Queda when they were attacking the Russians
d) The US government continues to fund terrorists in South America

http://www.ucomics.com/boondocks/2001/10/04/ ...and rom then onwards for quite a long way.
The October 4th strip got the comic dropped from several papers, I hear.

Yes, that about sums it up.

I guess the US Government isn't too happy when people point out that they reaped what they sowed....

Unfortunately not. If somebody had actually lined up the various Bushes, whatever's left of Ronald "The Presidents brain is missing! Literally this time!" Reagan and the various other crooks involved (including not just the original Henry Kissmyassinger but a few hundred clones to boot) and given them a fiery death, then the world would be a much better place.

The "McDonalds funding the IRA" thing is an urban legend, FYI. Doesn't seem to be on Snopes yet though...

I've heard that story too, but weirdly, Google can't even seem to find one instance of someone repeating it online. Maybe attack lawyers from the Golden Arches do that very search at regular intervals and send nastygrams to every hit...

MacDonalds funding the IRA? Hmm, not convinced.

However, it was said for years in Ireland if the US was totally sincere about bombing everyone funding terrorists, it should send some bombers over Boston occasionally. But, of course, the 'ra are plucky freedom fighters. Totally different.

Or the 42,000 Americans killed by cars last year (according to the NHTSA).

Or the 1100 Americans killed every day by cigarettes (according to the CDC).

Or the 5,400 Iraqi children killed every month, year after year, as a result of US sanctions on Iraq blocking food and medical supplies.

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