Two minute silence

[ciphergoth]

At 12:00 BST today, London and many around the world observed a two minute silence for the 48 people who died in the terrorist attacks on London on 7 July.

During those two minutes, approximately 42 children worldwide died due to poverty.

We are not going to let terrorists cause us to lose perspective.

Comments

[ajva.livejournal.com]

You focussed on an interesting point, namely media bias. ergotia says above that for her, this is actually a political point, and I can certainly see where she's coming from. But for me, it is simply another example of people (in this case, the people woking for media companies, led both by what they themselves are interested in, and is what they think their readers/viewers will be interested in) making more of news that is closer to home. The major media companies in the world are based largely in the USA, Europe and Australia, and I expect the news sites that the people reading here usually get their information from are similarly based (cnn, bbc etc.)

However, I would expect the press in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv to give more emphasis (than the bbc does, say) to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, for example, including the intifada, suicide bombings in general, arguments about withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the dividing wall etc. Equally, I would expect different editorial on Al-Jazeera and Arab world news media on world issues.

I suppose the point I am trying make is that, although we can feel uncomfortable with the bias in the media we frequent, it is also largely *our* decision which ones we read/watch. Obviously we are limited by what languages we can understand, but this particular barrier is I think becoming less and less important, particularly for those who have a good grasp of English (and of course, one can always learn other languages). We set up our own filters, and become our own editors in a way, by choosing what to read. So I do not think it entirely fair that we hold "the media" responsible for bias. We make our own bias, by neglecting to strike a balance in our own reading.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

It's probably just as well that they did disable comments or I might well have torn them an new arsehole.

[werenerd.livejournal.com]

Would disagree with you there. As a regular translator for the Swedish Roads Administration, I’ve seen a lot of evidence as to just how political an issue road deaths is. The amount of money spent on Road Improvements, Drunk Driving Awareness, Traffic Safety Monitoring, Driving License Requirements, and the penalties set for Traffic Safety Violations, has a direct and substantial impact on the number of road deaths. This is bourn out by the widely differing numbers of road deaths within the EU.

Sweden, which has some of Europe’s toughest Driving Laws, lowest Blood-Alcohol tolerance, and most difficult Driving License requirements, and which also sinks about double the amount of money per capita into Road Safety as the UK, has over a third less road deaths per capita than the UK.

Your national politicians have considerable power to influence Road Deaths.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Yes.

Even putting aside proximity, "child shot" makes headlines, while "child run over" doesn't; this makes some people worry more about the former than the latter, and is precisely because the latter is much more likely than the former.

Schneier's maxim: if it's in the news, don't worry about it.

I'm still not saying we shouldn't be shocked, moved, outraged and defiant, just that keeping perspective is part of that defiance.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Hm.
True, those who are motivated can seek out a more full understanding of what's happening in the world. But here, at least, there are still a heck of a lot of people who get their news from broadcast media, which will run off together and focus for weeks on some celebrity trial or one missing person and then not bother to cover what's going on in the legislature. It's maddening.

Part of why I wish the broadcast folks would make more of an attempt to cover pending legislation or give more broad analysis of world events is that so many people will only seek news from sources they match politically. And then we end up with situations like we had in the US where people who planned to vote for Bush often assumed he supported the policies they supported, when he often did not (that PIPA report about separate realities).

[simm42.livejournal.com]

Thats the attitude why I kept comments off.

I dont open my LJ space for online flame wars, but then I dont put opinions on there that I wont hold up in public.

I'm going to drop the matter there since I certainly dont want to get into the kind of flames on someone else's LJ that I avoid in mine.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

In that case perhaps you should consider deleting the entry altogether. I don't consider the sentiments you expressed laudible or well thought out, and if you're not prepared to stand by them yourself you should retract them.

[ajva.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is a fair point. But do you not think people will do this anyway? Most of us are guilty of confirmation bias in some way or another. Then again, I would agree that that's no reason for the media not to try harder.

Mind you, most media outlets are either commercial organisations or competing with commercial organisations. So perhaps we can't expect too much from them. The people get what the people want...

[ajva.livejournal.com]

I think there's another difference between "child shot" and "child run over", which influences people's response: intent.

I understand and applaud your plea for perspective.

[deeply-spurious.livejournal.com]

Very important and well made point... One of the things which depressed me most about what happened last week was that it did so much damage to the momentum of the Make Poverty History campaign. Having said that, I thought it admirable that Blair - for all his faults - insisted that the summit continue with it's original agenda with the result that real and genuine progress was made on the Africa issue... The danger is that because the media agenda has been diverted from that issue, leaders (and the public) may now regard the Africa issue as somehow 'dealt with'...

Incidentally, you'll I'm sure be aware that there were a number of other tragic events in recent days which also have received virtually no attention across the world. A train crash in Pakistan killed 120 people... and something like 60 Iraqis have been killed in a number of attacks - including over 20 children yesterday.... 'Today we are all Iraqis'? Can't see it somehow...

[cavalorn.livejournal.com]

Making a post that is supposedly intended to 'make people think' and then refusing to engage in the articulation of said thinking (the subsequent discussion) is the equivalent of knocking on doors and running away.

[simm42.livejournal.com]

More to make me think about my life in the reflections of my own opinions, how one holds up against the other and do I manage to live to my own ideals.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's been termed the "balkanization" of the media. At least 30 years ago when there were only the couple networks people were creating their differing opinions off of the same information.

Now the information is fragmented and polarized. I'm not sure how this can be rectified.

And yes. Some time in the last 15 to 20 years the news segment of the media stopped being seen as a public duty and necessary cost center to being instead a profit center. Worse, consolidation of the media companies means that there are far fewer foreign desk reporters now than there were even 10 years ago. Coverage suffers, and more organizations rely on the same few journalistic sources.

[djm4]

I disagree. I think it's the equivalent of putting up a highly visible poster (and to me, that's a different thing from knocking on a door and running away).

[djm4]

You do not have the right not to be offended by what other people say. You have the right to think they're arseholes for saying it, but it's not up to you to arbitrate whether or not they get to say it.

(I don't have a problem, in this context, with 'perhaps you should consider deleting the entry altogether', but I think 'you should retract them' is going too far.)

[simm42.livejournal.com]

The entry served its purpose - in making me think about my own life in response to my ideals, one of the reasons I keep a journal.

In hindsight the place where it is now is perhaps more appropriate given prevailing thoughts and emotions.

Since you obviously disagree with the content and context I apologise for linking your name in there wihtout permission.

[pavlos.livejournal.com]

I for one would never be able to get out of bed in the morning if I was forced to feel as much pain over every single death in the world as I have felt over the past week for those who died in the London bombs.

Well, I think that would be a good idea. Although radical, it would be the right thing to do. Of course it would be very inconvenient, and pointless if only you personally felt that way, but if we all did some problems would be very quickly fixed, no?

Malice is not the cause of evil in the world, indifference is.

[ajva.livejournal.com]

I think ciphergoth was just making a suggestion, and a good one at that. Still, I look forward to a future in which none of us believes they have a right not to be offended.

:o)

Re: *nods*

[redcountess]

Poverty is tied in with Population Control. They all need to be addressed. A good way to start is for the U.S. to start giving its annual funding to UNFPA again, so that people in developing countries have access to family planning, and HIV treatment and education.

And of course Poverty is also tied in with Terrorism - look at the Sudan etc.

[simm42.livejournal.com]

no one has the right to tell anyone what to think.....




In this case I haven't deleted the entry as that would be a denial, which is worse than a retraction, I've made it a private post - which is mostly what my LJ is, a private place for my thoughts

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Good point - and that's a difference that makes a certain kind of sense. All the same: necrotizing fasciitis.

[ajva.livejournal.com]

Of course it would be very inconvenient, and pointless if only you personally felt that way, but if we all did some problems would be very quickly fixed, no?

Well, not really. We'd all be stuck in bed, slowly starving to death. Including the policy-makers. Nothing at all would happen. Now that's what I'd call indifference in action.

:o)

[redcountess]

One thing I get a little cross about though is the expensive tributes being left at KX, when that money would have been better spent being donated to Red Cross for the fund for the families and survivors. I felt the same when Diana died - all that money that could have been donated in her name to eradicate landmines instead.

[redcountess]

The death of those 20 Iraqi children was indeed evil and wicked - but could have been avoided if the U.S Military hadn't been performing a public relations exercise by giving out sweets to them.

[redcountess]

ie. the soldiers were the target.