The distasters in Southern Asia....Media....good riddance.
Not to sound too much like a nagger, but I have been reading Suzanne Moyer's little corner of the world and The Drake's postings (AIESEC world), and I'd just to just say a few words on the earthquake/tsunamis in Asia and the coverage my the US media.
First and foremost I would like to say that while I don't have that many direct connections to that part of the world as of yet, I would like to send my condolances and wish the best to all the familes and loved ones who were lost on Sunday morning. The crisis is a terrible one of magnitudes unfelt in recent times and impossible to understand. I read in a newspaper article here in the Gulf News here in Dubai that two Sri Lankan brothers living in Dubai lost 48 out of 49 members of their family in a matter of a few minutes. The only one person left is a young cousin who grasped onto a tree for dear life and somehow made it through alive. They lived in a small coastal village on the Island.
The news coverage here, being located in the Middle East, in a city with over half of its population being from Southern Asia, is superb. I haven't missed a tick of news so far and I am grateful for this. I have become increasingly aware in the later of my 23 years that the US media is anything but a complete source of news, and I accept this. News is going to be skewed in some way toward the area in which is is being relayed to. But to hear from back home that initially (I assume the news has since picked the story up) this story was belittled and shown little absolute importance really irritates me. I would say it is a shock, but I have already been introduced to this manner of reporting.
In a time when Scott Peterson gets more initial coverage for killing his wife (Not to belittle what happened, but one murder and a multi-month long court case continued to clog the media waves while such things were going on such as problems with the US led war in Iraq, politically induced voter fraud in the Ukraine, and now this catastrophy in Asia) than a natural disaster that has killed, so far, over 67,000 people, something needs to be said and done. We are all prepped for a lot of change in the future, with China's emminenent emergence as the world's foremost economical power, the EU continuing to grow and gain grounds on the US, and non-Americans approaching me during my travels and asking me if it is true that America isn't as great of a place as the movies and media make it sound. Let's just somehow make the world issues America's concern before we shelter ourselves so much that we fail in sustaining a nation that has traditionally been foreward thinking and open minded and become the hermit society that other nations make fun of. Do what little you can to spread the progress of different internallionally focused media sources such as CNN international, the BBC, Reuters, IHT, even Al Jazeera (some doubt me, but it is a good alternative source for a different, less western view on things...be a more learned reader).
Sorry to be so preachy. I am just to that point right now. I love the US and as you can tell I want the best for it. I want to see the US grow and become an even better society than we already have established. I just don't think that we thinking in terms of future growth, preservation of those things most important to us, and unhindered, unbiased knowledge to educate people with. I know this is vague, but think about it for awhile and see whether creating more trade barriers, deflating the value of the dollar, spending more and more on war (including defense missles that won't launch and more vehicles in the gulf without armor) and less and less on education and environmental preservation all while adding to our astronomical level of debt makes any sense to trying to create a forward thinking economy? Sure the US recession is slowly fading and more places in the US are hiring than a year ago, but in global terms our dollar is weaker than before and we are ready to be tossed aside by the Dragons out east. Just keep your head up, eyes and ears open, and stay focused on what is most important.
There, I have vented :0,
Eric
Please let me know if you disagree on some point I blabbed on about, or if you have something to add. I'm sure I jumped from point to point and missed making some things clear and perhaps mispoke about a certain issue. I'm always open to be criticized/critiqued :) .
First and foremost I would like to say that while I don't have that many direct connections to that part of the world as of yet, I would like to send my condolances and wish the best to all the familes and loved ones who were lost on Sunday morning. The crisis is a terrible one of magnitudes unfelt in recent times and impossible to understand. I read in a newspaper article here in the Gulf News here in Dubai that two Sri Lankan brothers living in Dubai lost 48 out of 49 members of their family in a matter of a few minutes. The only one person left is a young cousin who grasped onto a tree for dear life and somehow made it through alive. They lived in a small coastal village on the Island.
The news coverage here, being located in the Middle East, in a city with over half of its population being from Southern Asia, is superb. I haven't missed a tick of news so far and I am grateful for this. I have become increasingly aware in the later of my 23 years that the US media is anything but a complete source of news, and I accept this. News is going to be skewed in some way toward the area in which is is being relayed to. But to hear from back home that initially (I assume the news has since picked the story up) this story was belittled and shown little absolute importance really irritates me. I would say it is a shock, but I have already been introduced to this manner of reporting.
In a time when Scott Peterson gets more initial coverage for killing his wife (Not to belittle what happened, but one murder and a multi-month long court case continued to clog the media waves while such things were going on such as problems with the US led war in Iraq, politically induced voter fraud in the Ukraine, and now this catastrophy in Asia) than a natural disaster that has killed, so far, over 67,000 people, something needs to be said and done. We are all prepped for a lot of change in the future, with China's emminenent emergence as the world's foremost economical power, the EU continuing to grow and gain grounds on the US, and non-Americans approaching me during my travels and asking me if it is true that America isn't as great of a place as the movies and media make it sound. Let's just somehow make the world issues America's concern before we shelter ourselves so much that we fail in sustaining a nation that has traditionally been foreward thinking and open minded and become the hermit society that other nations make fun of. Do what little you can to spread the progress of different internallionally focused media sources such as CNN international, the BBC, Reuters, IHT, even Al Jazeera (some doubt me, but it is a good alternative source for a different, less western view on things...be a more learned reader).
Sorry to be so preachy. I am just to that point right now. I love the US and as you can tell I want the best for it. I want to see the US grow and become an even better society than we already have established. I just don't think that we thinking in terms of future growth, preservation of those things most important to us, and unhindered, unbiased knowledge to educate people with. I know this is vague, but think about it for awhile and see whether creating more trade barriers, deflating the value of the dollar, spending more and more on war (including defense missles that won't launch and more vehicles in the gulf without armor) and less and less on education and environmental preservation all while adding to our astronomical level of debt makes any sense to trying to create a forward thinking economy? Sure the US recession is slowly fading and more places in the US are hiring than a year ago, but in global terms our dollar is weaker than before and we are ready to be tossed aside by the Dragons out east. Just keep your head up, eyes and ears open, and stay focused on what is most important.
There, I have vented :0,
Eric
Please let me know if you disagree on some point I blabbed on about, or if you have something to add. I'm sure I jumped from point to point and missed making some things clear and perhaps mispoke about a certain issue. I'm always open to be criticized/critiqued :) .
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