today I read in the online news that now about 150.000 are dead in the Asian quake disaster - Of these 150.000 about 100.000 are from Indonesia, mainly Sumatra - but most of the news reports tell only about the victims in Thailand, Sri Lanka etc. - principally about the places where a lot of 'us' western European & American people were - I did not see a single report about Sumatra - here in Germany they tell above all about the number of the about 1000 Germans killed & missed there, in USA about the lost Americans etc., but I also want to know about the victims of the other countries - Ever allways I want to know it all reported & told from a distant, objective view, like it was an United Nations report, not just a single nation's interest report, - there ought to exist neutral, objective news worldwide, not only these national news where every country ducks the news in its own colors. But who should write them? Marsanians?
They said it was the catastophe (disaster) of the century, but 1976: there was an Earthquake in Tangshan, China, that killed 242,000 people. Does someone remember? - Oh yes - there wasn't any western Tourists involved
- I vaguely remember, that when in 1970 a Cyclone in Bangladesh killed 500,000 people, there was a big aid campaign - it was so desastrious that for some years the main aid goal was Bangladesh (Remember the song from George Harrison 'Bangladesh'?).
One of the best worldwide newcenters I know is BBC online (www.bbc.co.uk) - it's relative neutral (not allways - see before the Irac war - some reporters can't resist, that they're western coloured) - it's good, that most countries in the world have now online news in english, so understandable for the most of the world, which are easily to be found.
While the Afganisthan war raged after September the 11th, I also read the pakistani news online. Here I found also a lot of news about the permanent terror acts and military actions between India and Pakistan in Nepal. In our daily news here you don't hear almost anything about it. oh yes - we are not involed.
In the time short before the Irakian war created by Bush's & Blair's fear fantasies about chemical weapon threat, it was hard to find any neutral report in the USA news, most news agencies copy the opinion & news of central news agencies without deeper own investigations. If one false report is in one of the main papers, it's sure, that this false 'truth' is copied over & over again in other news media of of course the same culture region - arabic & islamic countries press p.e. is a closed circle in itself, western culture another one - the rest of the nations can choose, which of these truth circles they will believe & maybe import or copy.
So - if anything important in the world happens, it's a good idea to search the different sources of information worldwide to get a half-way neutral overview. But like in a law suit, where the judge has to find the truth between the public procecutor's and the lawyier's exaggerations & lies -
The truth in news is sometimes found somewhere in between , but sometimes the truth is never told by any reporter of any nation. Only some people know, who have no public voice at all.
I just read in a bbc forum-thread from a Burmesian (Burma = Myanmar today) "I'm extremely worried for one of our tribal groups: "Sa Lone". They are the sea gypsies. Their home is the Andaman Sea. The whole tribe may have been wiped out by the tsunami. The Burmese government does not have a credible census of them."
Another entry I found there:
"The world is focused on the South Asia disaster, and the death tolls from Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia are mounting by the hour. Virtually no information or first-hand accounts have come out of Burma, however.
Nonetheless, a quick look at any map shows that southern Burma had to be terribly affected by the tsunami. The Burmese islands and coastline around the Andaman Sea are just slightly north of the Thai resort of Phuket, which was devastated. In that area of Burma, a unique and very poor seafaring people known as the Sea Gypsies (Salones, or Moken) have lived simple lives dependent on fishing for centuries. Their lives will certainly never be the same. In November 2004, BPF visited this area to assess some of the needs of these people. Its medical team will be in the affected area next month. With donations from the public, FPB can alleviate some of the suffering that has resulted from this disaster. With enough support, the foundation can help the people there rebuild their communities for a better future."
& the rare reports from Sumatra - a lot of whole fisher village had been wiped out - one will never know how much of people died there -
There is a giant wave of aid & support from the western world, from arabic states, also from very poor countries in Africa p.e. -
But I wonder - will this money for aid mainly be given
to the more reported regions & such popular places like Sri Lanka, Thailand etc. - or will it be coordinated just in the right proportion to those who need help?
And will the support & aid stay as long as it's necessary or will it quickly cease, as soon as it's out of the focus of media & also out of people's brains?
The world forgets so quick..
I think everybody who is able for it - I mean not starving - should donate in relation to his income. Also small accounts count. -
Germany has about 82 Mil. inhabitants. If - let's say - only half of them would donate only 10 Euros - that would be the gigantic sum of 400 Mil. Euros. - But only view percents of us selfish people in each country feel responsible.
Let's see how 2005 works out..
catastrophes always happened, causing the dinosaurs to die out, so:
1923: Tokyo earthquake kills 140,000
1887: China's Yellow River breaks its banks in Huayan Kou killing 900,000
1826: Tsunami kills 27,000 in Japan
1815: Volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora on Indonesia's Sumbawa Island kills 90,000
1556: Earthquake in China's Shanxi and Henan provinces kills 830,000
...
.. very very ancient old time: the neandertal man got extinguished, probably caused by the uprising human race...
