Smile and the World Starves with You: "So this morning I'm following my usual routine of a smoothie and the BBC and one of the first stories broadcast was about the current food crisis in the southern part of Niger. Heard about this? Maybe not... I just ran a search for “Niger“ on the New York Times site and the only hits that came back were related to the Rove buffoonery.
I'll admit that I haven't been following it as closely as I'd like, but the basics are this: drought ruins harvests and upwards of three million people are facing starvation. The images from the BBC report are essentially what you'd expect - lots of heart-rending shots of malnourished children, flurries of activity in aid sites that have been set up, etc. The BBC anchor, after listening to the reporter's description, asked “But food aid is arriving now, right?”. The reporter: “Actually, no. A few tons of World Food Program food aid arrived today but it's estimated that 19,000 tons of food aid are required”. (Not actual quotes, I'm paraphrasing from memory, but that was the gist of it)
The anchor sort of grunted and then moved on to the really important story of the day, the not-quite-successful attempted bombings in London... and the BBC then proceeded to spend easily triple the amount of time spent on the Niger situation on: a security consultant telling people on the London tube and bus systems to smile at each other on the train as a means of reducing the threat from terrorists.
Look, the bombings in London were really really bad. My sympathies go out to those injured and the families of those killed. And I know that I should no longer be surprised or shocked by the way the media and the Western world in general views crises in Africa - from a distance, with a wringing of hands, gnashing of teeth, possibly rending of garments, and then off to the cricket match. But something in those five minutes or so of TV viewing this morning really brought it home for me: when the BBC decides "
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment