I Plead Unconciousness, Your Honour!
(Yup, more tsunami-related blogging) The outpouring of compassion following the disaster in Asia is all well and good. Australia's putting up a billion dollars for Indonesia, Japan half a billion US dollars. We've got 24 world leaders in Jakarta today, American aircraft carriers working alongside New Zealand's held-together-with-chickenwire Hercules, police forensic experts from around the world converging on Thailand. The response has been extraordinary.
But why does it take the drame of a ten metre high oceanic wave to provoke this sort of willingness to help those less fortunate in the world? A Considerable Speck links to a great article by Rabbi Michael Lerner, who contrasts the current worldwide aid-fever with the non-existent reaction to a recent UN report stating that 29,000 children die every day due to preventable diseases and malnutrition.
"the Tsunami's story line is safe and predictable and unlikely to challenge the current global distribution of wealth or power. Most reporters and news editors have internalized their sense of what the top-management in their industry considers "news- worthy" and thus they didn't give much attention to the U.N. story and its dramatic and tragic dimensions."
How unconscious can we be? Very, it appears.
"Misch, lui aussi, se trouvait au cœur de toutes les informations qui parvenaient à la tête de l'Etat nazi. Mais il n'a rien vu ou voulu voir. Pas question, même aujourd'hui, d'admettre Hitler comme un meurtrier ; impossible d'accepter une quelconque culpabilité. "C'était mon chef, répète-t-il. Avec moi, il était attentionné et gentil. J'ai fait mon travail sans blesser quelqu'un. Je ne regrette rien, cela ne serait pas honnête. J'ai suivi et estime avoir payé avec mes neuf années d'emprisonnement."
Washingtonpost.com links to a PDF version of the 2002 memo co-authored by Attorney General nominee Alberto R. Gonzales which provides legal arguments justifying US policy towards torture/interrogation of suspected terrorists following 9/11. Gonzales seems to be the perfect Ashcroft replacement, really.
Oh, and if you want to go bury your head in the sand again, how about joining this illustrious sporting organisation?
But why does it take the drame of a ten metre high oceanic wave to provoke this sort of willingness to help those less fortunate in the world? A Considerable Speck links to a great article by Rabbi Michael Lerner, who contrasts the current worldwide aid-fever with the non-existent reaction to a recent UN report stating that 29,000 children die every day due to preventable diseases and malnutrition.
"the Tsunami's story line is safe and predictable and unlikely to challenge the current global distribution of wealth or power. Most reporters and news editors have internalized their sense of what the top-management in their industry considers "news- worthy" and thus they didn't give much attention to the U.N. story and its dramatic and tragic dimensions."
How unconscious can we be? Very, it appears.
"Misch, lui aussi, se trouvait au cœur de toutes les informations qui parvenaient à la tête de l'Etat nazi. Mais il n'a rien vu ou voulu voir. Pas question, même aujourd'hui, d'admettre Hitler comme un meurtrier ; impossible d'accepter une quelconque culpabilité. "C'était mon chef, répète-t-il. Avec moi, il était attentionné et gentil. J'ai fait mon travail sans blesser quelqu'un. Je ne regrette rien, cela ne serait pas honnête. J'ai suivi et estime avoir payé avec mes neuf années d'emprisonnement."
Washingtonpost.com links to a PDF version of the 2002 memo co-authored by Attorney General nominee Alberto R. Gonzales which provides legal arguments justifying US policy towards torture/interrogation of suspected terrorists following 9/11. Gonzales seems to be the perfect Ashcroft replacement, really.
Oh, and if you want to go bury your head in the sand again, how about joining this illustrious sporting organisation?
posted by etnobofin @ 17:31
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