Monday, February 12, 2007
Priorities
Astronauts, and Anna Nicole that is about the only news that I can get these last couple of days. The Astronaut story is amusing. Anna Nicole's death is sad, and I hate to hear that, but this is not headline news. All weekend I tried to get a little news in, I have been busy with school work so I have not been as up on the news as I would like to be. Every time I caught a little bit of something different I quickly shifted gears to the Astronaut or Anna Nicole. I did happen to catch an Anderson Cooper bit on the conditions some people in Africa are going through. Apparently these people live off of fishing and the fish are becoming scarce. A plant that is on the river is releasing pollution in to the river killing the fish and causing people who already live in poverty to become even poorer. Some people in the area are fed up with this and are ready to take action. They have formed a militant group whose purpose is to fight the plant or rather the people in charge. Here in America we might call these men terrorist, but their hands have been forced their friends and family are dying because their life's blood is being taken from them. Who ever runs that plant obviously doesn't care for the villagers or environment. It seems that they did not stop and think about what the effects of the plant would have. No, it was all about the money. The truth is that this type of thing happens all the time in third world nations. Good people are forced to do things that they would not normally do just for survival. This is a good point on how sketchy the definition of terrorism is. The people of that village, their lives are literally on the line. The lives of their children. They will do what ever it takes to protect them. They have reached a breaking point. They fight for survival. Can we blame them for that? If they blow that plant up. They can be called terrorist or they can be called heroes. The line is sketchy, terrorist because they used violence to get a point across, Heroes because they stood up and defended their family and way of life. I guess what I want you to get from this is that people all over the world are starving, slavery still exist, despots run amok, genocide is carried out, and in America the personal problems of an astronaut and the death of one person takes precedence over all the other things happening in this world of ours. Where are our priorities?
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This reminds me of how few people know the story of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and Shell Oil. Shell was polutting a lot of the land because of it's oil-drilling methods, thus making it untillable. After Saro-Wiwa's group, the MOSOP, tried to get the government to force Shell into obeying Nigerian enviornmental laws, Saro-Wiwa wound up being arrested on false murder charges and executed, while MOSOP was dubbed a terrorist organization.
None of this was covered in the mainstream press, only in the alternative papers. At the time, the mainstream press was preoccupied with the OJ Simpson trial.
It's a fairly good habit to get into that if you see a celebrity headline dominating the news for a stretch of time to actively see what else is going on in the world. For example, massive international protests, and teach-ins with experts from all over the world took place amid the last Michael Jackson sex scandal.
Is it us or them? 65 people died in Iraq yesterday from one bomb and I still can't get details because of the other stories you named. You and I WANT to know things; most people don't care. So is the media catering to the American taste or is it creating in them the need to know nothing important?
I just read a long piece on Tibet in Rolling Stone. That is the place that needs attention; too bad we buy everything in our economy from China which is occupying and Chinafying Tibet; raping it of its culture both figuratively and literally.
This is a very good point you're making. I admire you for the in depth and wider view with genuine concern you always point out.
I guess, sex sells. Poverty and sad stories especially those happening away from home-ground are tough to relate and cast aside... not interesting enough.
I think the people use force not to prove a point, but to survive.
Heroes, yes they are to me.
They fight for survival of your families and environment against opportunistic parasites who are self-serving individuals and irresponsible, inhumane organisations.
In the end, it's money... the root of all evils unfortunately.
I know exactly what you mean. The astronaut story and the dead anna story are stories that will not be allowed to rest in peace.
I don't know if the media does this because it's easy and they're lazy or if it really is what their viewers are most interested in hearing about. Either way, it doesn't speak well for us or our country or our media.
I like this post. It really gets you thinking about what OTHER people are thinking to be immersing themselves in "news" when there's REAL news beyond the personal lives of people who are well off. Personally, I think the reason why so many people give into the whole personal lives of well known people is because they like to see something go wrong in their seemingly outstanding lives. It makes them feel BETTER.
Hearing news about lives being threatened, the environment being threatened, people living in poverty and the drastic measure these people have to take makes those people feel WORSE.
In the end, it's all about the audience and feeding them what they want to hear, see and read. News doesn't really matter, anymore, because the ones controlling it aren't always the people on the TV screen-it's the people watching the TV screen.
A.N.S., and the goofy Astronut, both have story lines that would sell in the 30's depression era: SEX!! The MSM will ride both until we're nauseous. Except for sports, my TV's rarely on anymore. I get all my news on my puter. You have to work a little, but at least you get a few differing views.
The real story behind this garbage is the lack of concern by the "boyfriend", the family, and others about Anna's body. All they see is dollar signs for something that most likely won't happen, and then the kid will be left in the wind.
This is the sad state of affairs here in the good ole US, when people care more about money then they do about others.
When I turn on the tele and find CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and others spending worthless hours on this and the Nowack situation, I just turn it off, and don't bother watching those channels for a while.
There is more interesting news if you know where to look for it.
Take care
-T
We have met the enemy and the enemy is "us". The Weapon of Mass Destruction is right here!..what has become of us?...you will understand my meaning when you see my recent blog post.
Rhiannon
Thanks for always finding time to stop by!! I appreciate it!! I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!!
Take care of yourself!!
~UB
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