Is The News Story Actually About The Deaths...

Or Just Covering The Political Agenda Of The Dumbasses Reporting Them?


I was languishing around the Internet this evening trying to find something to bitch about write about when I saw a headline about the recent Cyclone in Bangladesh that has killed at least 2000 people.

Bangladesh said on Sunday that the death toll from a massive cyclone hit 2,000, with that grim tally certain to rise as they struggled to get aid to millions of people left homeless.

The death toll has been jumping by hundreds at a time as rescue workers fight their way to remote areas where entire villages were flattened by the fury of Cyclone Sidr, which tore through south Bangladesh on Thursday night.

''I have never seen such a catastrophe in my 20 years as a government administrator,'' said Harisprasad Pal, a local official in the hard-hit southern district of Jhalokati.

''Village after village has been shattered,'' he said. ''Millions of people are living out in the open and relief is reaching less than one percent of the people.''

This story of death and loss is certainly yet the most recent "natural disaster" to hit the news wires, and I'm sure that the United Nations will be happy to rattle their tin cups demanding financial aid and the use of the US's military resources (something we're already doing) to assist in the relief effort; while at the same time lamenting that America should and could do more, ignoring the Europeans while they make yet another of their typical stingy offers:

The European Commission said it was sending US$ 2.2 million dollars in emergency relief aid to the country.

I hope that somehow that figure is wrong or a typo, because otherwise the socialists over in Europe will be guilty of offering only the equivalent of $1,000.00 per corpse, or $1.00 per displaced Bangladeshi?

That can't be right, nor is it morally conscionable.

That said, what really pisses me off is the amount of news coverage that stories about the poor citizens of Bangladesh get in the US and world media.

FOR INSTANCE, I did a Google News search using the words "Bangladesh Typhoon" and only came up with a total of 49 hits.

Next I did a Google News search looking for "Hurricane Katrina" and was astonished by finding
22,453 stories printed in the PAST HOUR ( at 1:54 AM in the morning)!!!

What the heck?

Then I realized that tropical storms occurring in the Indian Ocean were called Cyclones, not Typhoons, so I did another Google News search for stories in the past hour using the words "Bangladesh Cyclone" and came up with again only 4,024 hits.

My point here is this, Hurricane Katrina, a storm which by varying accounts killed as many as 1836 people in its initial assault and the resulting floods occurred over TWO YEARS ago, in a country with modern infrastructure, where virtually every household in the affected area had cable TV, was warned to evacuate, and had a private automobile or other public transportation available to assist potential victims in their Exodus.

With the exception of the elderly and hospital patients, most of the people who died or were injured were just plain stupid by not leaving when told to do so, and I'm not making this statement based on political affiliation or lack of human compassion.

Yet today the lamestream media is still publishing stories about the Katrina aftermath two years later bashing FEMA and the administration of George Bush at a rate 300% (4,024 stories versus 22, 453 articles) above their use of newsprint and ink on a disaster of possibly ten times Katrina's magnitude, in a country full of tan skinned citizens that live in poverty in houses on bamboo stilts with tin roofs, and without the benefit of getting a warning from the Weather Channel or their government.

Doesn't something seem a little strange about that statistic--4 to 1?

And another thing, where the %$#@ is the UN before this debacle happened?

After all, Bangladesh historically gets inundated every TEN or FIFTEEN years with this exact same kind of natural disaster. Poor illiterate people are killed and stacked like cordwood every decade, and all Kofi Annan, his successor, and his predecessors could and can do is bitch about the US's failure to recognize global warming.

I'm sure the stories will be popping up soon saying that me, my Chevy Suburban, and all of my fellow gas guzzling citizens here in the US bear at least half the responsibility for the size and severity of the storm, and Bush and Cheney used secret Air Force technology to steer the storm into the country in order to deflect attention from their illegal War in Iraq and their failed domestic policies.

And another thing--where the heck is the outrage of the bleeding hearts in the Democratic Party and Paul Krugman at the NY Times over this loss of life and destruction of people's homes and lives?

I suspect that in reality Krugman doesn't give a tinker's damn about poor tan skinned people in some far off foreign land, because there is virtually no political capital in them--they're useless compared to Louisiana and New Orleans' vocal "victims", many of which haven't gotten off of their asses since the storm and are still living in free government housing over two years after the fact.

Maybe it's just me, but something seems wrong here when you carefully think about the details...anyone agree?

I think I'll walk outside now and let my head explode...