20,000+ Dead In China Quake. 40,000+ Dead In Burma

[Troy Spiral (13)]

20,000+ Dead In China quake. 40,000+ dead in Burma (Myanmar) and the count is probably much higher.

All recent events. All just sort of glossed over per usual and honestly, people in the U.S. just don't seem to care. As if somehow if you weren't born on U.S. soil your life isn't worth much. There is some significant coverage but "we" just don't seem to care. Gas prices are seen as the end of the world. Some idiotic coverage of Dancing With The Stars is "news"?

Then i see these stories some kid getting killed and they talk to the family for half the show, or how some cat got rescued from a abandoned house. Excuse me? Whole communities destroyed? Hello? Sense of proportion anyone? What am I missing? (Not that i don't have my own 20 page long hypothesis about all this)

Honestly, even me knowing i should give a HUGE amount of concern to this topic, I've somehow (learned?) not to care about real human tragedy and focus on oddities, entertainment and other individual "human stories" that really are trivial by comparison. Somethings wrong.

[ttogreh]

They are poor. Their deaths, like the deaths from the tsunami, do nothing to affect global commerce. They are not white. If such a disaster happened in Europe, North America, or Australia, the world would shudder.

[Pandora]

I care, but I can't spend too much time on it or I'll become very depressed.

If I have time to volunteer for things I give it to the people living here in my country first.

If I have money to give I give it to charities that focus on people living here first.

And I blame the media for assuming most american's don't want to know about tragedy overseas.

I can only hope the governments of both China and Burma (although I know the Burmese govt. are having a hell of a time getting supplies) are able to take care of their people when these things happen.

I would not be a good president because my foreign policy would always come a distant second to domestic policy.

[Rev.Reverence]

20,000+ Dead In China quake. 40,000+ dead in Burma (Myanmar) and the count is probably much higher.

Somethings wrong.

Woah...that's HUGE...

Please don't take my reaction to this as 'callousness'.

The Doctors told me YEARS ago, don't watch the News...It's too depressing...

I watch the Daily Show... it depresses me sometimes...

The Docs. probably wouldn't want me reading half the shit ya'll post up here...

..good thing I don't talk to them anymore...

I gotta' thank you all who post the News...(even though I do get the horrid sadness some days{LIKE NOW}...)

The sadness comes not from out of the original travesty...(the price of life is death)and I grieve for the survivors...

I think that the glossing over of such things is a crime against humanity perpetuated by the media, and other nefarious powers...THIS IS WHAT IS DEPRESSIVE.....

[Hellion]

I do care,considering I have met ppl from that country,just because I live here I should say fuck the rest of the planet.(being sarcastic)IMO there are certain ppl here I don't care for either,I just dont dwell on it.hope the best for them

[Michiko_Dreads]

Honestly, even me knowing i should give a HUGE amount of concern to this topic, I've somehow (learned?) not to care about real human tragedy and focus on oddities, entertainment and other individual "human stories" that really are trivial by comparison. Somethings wrong.

Some would say over time we learned not to care about the most important things happening in the world.

The way media targets the celebs, animal stories, and yes oddities they make people more interested in crap rather than what is actually news.

Some people are like just because they live in America they shouldnt care about other countries.

Then we have those who care about everything thats happaening in the world.

You say something is wrong I say placing bullshit in the media like Britney Spears Custody Battle is whats wrong, I say people caring so much on what FAMOUS teenager is pregnant is whats wrong, I say people wanting to LOOK all in Paris Hiltons crotch thats whats wrong. THE PROBLEM IS MAINSTREAM MEDIA WANTS TO TARGET EVERYONE SO THEY FOCUS ON ALL THE BULLSHIT AND NOT REAL STORIES. THEY KNOW IF THEY SHOW YOU CELEBRITIES AFTER CELBRITIES YOU WOULD ONLY WANT CELEBRITIES. In order to get real news now-a-days you have to watch CNN because local news is being filled with bullshit. Im a fan of the Colbert Report but its like why whould you parodize the news. Its funny but would be a distraction from actual news.

[TygerLili]

I don't think most people are really capable of understanding what a tradgedy like this even means. I mean, I can't picture in my head what the carnage of 40,000+ bodies would look like, it's not real to me. It doesn't immediately affect my life in any adverse way, so there's not even really some small piece of it that I can comprehend and focus on.

I remember on 9-11 as the day unfolded listening to people complain about everything from gas prices rising, to being inconvenienced because classes were cancelled, to their favorite shows not being shown because of the constant news coverage. That seems petty and uncaring, but I think really it was just people's way of trying to make sense of something they couldn't understand.

Thousands of people dead for reasons we don't know=huge, incomprehensible problem that doesn't seem real. Gas prices rising=something that directly and immediately affects me. I can understand it, and it pisses me off.

Focusing on trivial matters doesn't make us bad people. It's what the human brain does.

[Morbid Side]

It's very true that we turn a blind eye to these types of tragedies and focus on other matters, some of which are not life threatning. I do feel for the families of the victims whose lives were cut short, death is death. It does not matter if it happened here or in another country.

[Hellion]

Wait till something like this happens here.hopefully it won't,nature has its own checks and balances.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

I have the news on about 14 hours a day. Rotating between CNN/Fox News/Local News/MSNBC. I'm pretty aware of whats going on there. Of those 14 hours I would say about 6-7 is covered of those two disasters.

For Burma what is covered is the fact that the USA has shit loads of food/water/blankets/medicine just off shore and on airports all over the area. There is a fleet of relief ships with the ability to care for the sick/make clean drinking water/act as emergency shelter. They wont let us in... they barely let anyone in to help. It sickens me to think of the poor people that are dieing over there. There are outbreaks of Cholera and Dysentery. The "government" is hunting reporters that show how bad it is. What relief is getting into the country is being diverted to the military jhunta.

China is accepting aid from anyone that will give it. They are even taking aid from Japan. It's a mess. China dropped the ball just as hard as we did after Katrina but they are doing a good job of recovering from the fumble. I watched a little girl get pulled out of the rubble alive today... 3 days buried. I saw a months old baby pulled from her dead grand mothers arms... after 3 days... grand mother was still shielding the baby with her body from the collapsing building.

I for one care. The millions of people that are donating blood and money to the Red Cross, Red Cresent and other releif agencys... they care. You don't care and you don't speak for the rest of us.

[Hellion]

I have the news on about 14 hours a day. Rotating between CNN/Fox News/Local News/MSNBC. I'm pretty aware of whats going on there. Of those 14 hours I would say about 6-7 is covered of those two disasters.

For Burma what is covered is the fact that the USA has shit loads of food/water/blankets/medicine just off shore and on airports all over the area. There is a fleet of relief ships with the ability to care for the sick/make clean drinking water/act as emergency shelter. They wont let us in... they barely let anyone in to help. It sickens me to think of the poor people that are dieing over there. There are outbreaks of Cholera and Dysentery. The "government" is hunting reporters that show how bad it is. What relief is getting into the country is being diverted to the military jhunta.

China is accepting aid from anyone that will give it. They are even taking aid from Japan. It's a mess. China dropped the ball just as hard as we did after Katrina but they are doing a good job of recovering from the fumble. I watched a little girl get pulled out of the rubble alive today... 3 days buried. I saw a months old baby pulled from her dead grand mothers arms... after 3 days... grand mother was still shielding the baby with her body from the collapsing building.

I for one care. The millions of people that are donating blood and money to the Red Cross, Red Cresent and other releif agencys... they care. You don't care and you don't speak for the rest of us.

Well said Gaf

[Reaper]

Personally, I have seen the news and coverage on it. But I concentrate more on the american affairs as they progressively get worse. I believe that most americans are doing the same. If we were not in this predicament, I think americans would care more as they would have nothing else going on, as well as them having money to send help with. Right now, they are scrambling to save whatever they can expecting the worse. Things are bad in a lot of places and countries. Take care of numero uno first.

[creatureofthenyte]

What about the other countries over there ?

like Germany or France, or Switzerland, or places like those ?

It seems like, everytime a giant tragedy like china's earthquake, happens, that America is usually looked upon to be the first responders.

Why ?

I think its great that we help out, but why don't some other countries join in and help too ?

It's like whenever something bad happens, the world seems to turn their heads and look at us as if to say, "Ok America, what are You going to do to help?"

[SaGa]

it whould sadden me to see this first hand, but to us it seems most those people are just a statistic. just look how many civilians died in iraq that had nothing to do with the war and just wanted to live there lives in peace. if my mother and father died in a explosion i whould be a mess for YEARS. whole familys torn apart over events like these. bwt in the 1800s when these things happend no one knew till months or years later. now media will cover it within seconds. soo ignorance a bliss, and people in the developed nations(not just amarica) feel we have to ignore everything around us to be happy.

and dont get me started on how we treat the bums in detroit, specially in wintertime.

[Rev.Reverence]

I have the news on about 14 hours a day. Rotating between CNN/Fox News/Local News/MSNBC. I'm pretty aware of whats going on there. Of those 14 hours I would say about 6-7 is covered of those two disasters.

For Burma what is covered is the fact that the USA has shit loads of food/water/blankets/medicine just off shore and on airports all over the area. There is a fleet of relief ships with the ability to care for the sick/make clean drinking water/act as emergency shelter. They wont let us in... they barely let anyone in to help. It sickens me to think of the poor people that are dieing over there. There are outbreaks of Cholera and Dysentery. The "government" is hunting reporters that show how bad it is. What relief is getting into the country is being diverted to the military jhunta.

China is accepting aid from anyone that will give it. They are even taking aid from Japan. It's a mess. China dropped the ball just as hard as we did after Katrina but they are doing a good job of recovering from the fumble. I watched a little girl get pulled out of the rubble alive today... 3 days buried. I saw a months old baby pulled from her dead grand mothers arms... after 3 days... grand mother was still shielding the baby with her body from the collapsing building.

I for one care. The millions of people that are donating blood and money to the Red Cross, Red Cresent and other releif agencys... they care. You don't care and you don't speak for the rest of us.

Thanx for the concise update bro...

[Hellion]

it whould sadden me to see this first hand, but to us it seems most those people are just a statistic. just look how many civilians died in iraq that had nothing to do with the war and just wanted to live there lives in peace. if my mother and father died in a explosion i whould be a mess for YEARS. whole familys torn apart over events like these. bwt in the 1800s when these things happend no one knew till months or years later. now media will cover it within seconds. soo ignorance a bliss, and people in the developed nations(not just amarica) feel we have to ignore everything around us to be happy.

and dont get me started on how we treat the bums in detroit, specially in wintertime.

Most people here look at others as blades of grass getting mowed,others deaths seem to mean nothing to most here,another form of apethy.its all about being self centered and stuck on themselves these days

[sass_in_the_pants]

At some point, I think people become numb to the numbers.

Like Lygerlil said, can you conceive of 5,00 people? I mean, really really realize what 5,00 people are? 10,000? 100,000?

At some point, we just can't get our heads around those numbers.

And, as far as not paying attention to it - I guess it depends on the circles you travel in. At my church they still haven't stopped talking about it.

[Mizuna]

The most intetresting thing I find about this is the lack of media coverage, or what appears to be a lack of from reading this in the country of America. Due to I am from New Zealand I can't really have a valid statement on just how much coverage there is because I plain just would not know.

I am surprised by this because isn't the only good news bad news?

As for China not being a major economic power, just woah dude, someone needs to look where America put all its eggs from the basket, if China falls, I am pretty sure America will follow, with the failing economy over there due to the mortgage crash among other things, I am really starting to think putting money in Canada would be a more safe palce, specially with the high risk in America for its low returns...

There do appear to be a lot of ignorant people out there however, one of my friends actaully said to me he didn't give a fuck because proportion wise to population 20k dead in China would be like 20 dead in New Zealand. Hearing this I became, lets say more than angry at him. But he did bring up something a lot of people do, that is looking at percentages instead of real figures.

Coverage could just be you have the wrong news station on.

Also you might find some people will feel, "Not in my back yard." Towards what has happened.

Yes a bad reply. Don't flame me :(

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

I am not finding where anyone said that China was not a major econimic power. Infact, I cant see where econimics of any country was brought up at all.

[Fin]

It's a mess. China dropped the ball just as hard as we did after Katrina but they are doing a good job of recovering from the fumble.

The millions of people that are donating blood and money to the Red Cross, Red Cresent and other releif agencys... they care.

Interesting that our own country still has not responded adequately to the Katrina disaster, even now.

If you want to make a difference & don't have any money to give, donate blood. Let me tell you from the inside, there is a massive shortage both here & abroad. And the "I might faint" or the "I don't have time" excuses are nonsense. Put your fear of needles on hold & get to the ARC.

(gets off soapbox)

[Oh_My_Goth]

Funny how the Universe handles over population.....

Not funny HA HA.....Funny Kookey!!!!!

[Mizuna]

They are poor. Their deaths, like the deaths from the tsunami, do nothing to affect global commerce. They are not white. If such a disaster happened in Europe, North America, or Australia, the world would shudder.

@ Gaf The Horse With Tears:

Was talking about that comment. I was pointing out, with lack of time to reply due to I had a uni class to catch, that the earth quake does affect the global commerce. Thinking it doesn't is stupid.

@ Oh_My_Goth:

-.-

[Guest GodfallenPromos]

the latest count for the death toll of the Chinese quake is now 51,000+

that many dying makes me shudder.....

@ ttgoreh

"They are poor. Their deaths, like the deaths from the tsunami, do nothing to affect global commerce. They are not white. If such a disaster happened in Europe, North America, or Australia, the world would shudder."

you mind talking about them like they are human???....cuz right now...how your talking about them...I wanna fucking puke...

Edited May 22, 2008 by GodfallenPromos

[sass_in_the_pants]

Interesting that our own country still has not responded adequately to the Katrina disaster, even now.

If you want to make a difference & don't have any money to give, donate blood. Let me tell you from the inside, there is a massive shortage both here & abroad. And the "I might faint" or the "I don't have time" excuses are nonsense. Put your fear of needles on hold & get to the ARC.

(gets off soapbox)

Absolutely right. Since the girls have been born (and obviously while I was pregnant) I haven't donated blood. Shame on me. For real. I used to donate all the time. It's hard to get to the donation center with babies in tow, but you're right.

We have a blood drive at work twice a year.

I guilted my friend Kim into donating. I didn't mean to. Really. I was just trying to be funny.

Next thing I know she's gone.

Next thing I know after that, another one of our co-workers is taking her purse off of her desk and I say 'Where are you going with Kim's purse?'

And he says 'She asked for it. She needs a dollar to get some water. She's not feeling so well'

So I got out in the hall and she is crumpled on the floor and she is GRAY. Not pale, not flush, just gray. I didn't know skin could turn that color. And then she says, all panting 'I. Hope. You're. Happy.'

I bought her a Coke and all was forgiven. But still. I'm kind of an ass.

None of that had anything to do with China, did it?

Damn.

[Homicidalheathen]

I do care....and think its gonna be a helluva year for us as well with tornados.