Does this upset you?

[Frazzled]

Do you find it upsetting/offensive/ insert appropriate emotion that the disastrous bombings that took place in Mumbai have received little media coverage. The death toll is going to be over 200 after 8 explosions and yet there has been 'simplistic' coverage. I spose what I mean is compared to the London, Bali and Spetember 11 attacks where our TVs were covered with 24 hour coverage and yet on the late news tonight, it was about the 3rd/4th story after about 5 minutes discussing Howard/Costello...:no:

Is it because there are no australian casualties or is it because it is in India?

What do you think, I'd be interested to hear others views.

[gidgeroo]

I always feel angry about the small amount of coverage accidents/bombings/natural disasters get in the media if they happen in 3rd world countries. It won't be on the front page of tomorrow's newspapers will it? It makes me crazy that the media values 1st world lives more highly and worthy of coverage. If the boxing day tsunami didn't have australian/western victims would we have seen so much footage and sent so much relief money? Look at the London bombings a year ago - they stopped the world to make us look at the carnage and the toll was much less than in Mumbai. Is it because we have a greater affiliation with the west that we think that its worse when terrible things happen there/here and that we have trouble relating to bad things happening in 3rd world countries.
The inequality in this is palpable - australia in particular is a multicultural country - everyone, except for indigenous australians, are either descended from or are themselves migrants. We all know someone who is indian or asian or middle eastern and I for one feel for them when they see how little our media cares about their country of birth and the disasters their homeland might be facing.

Suffering is suffering. Loss is loss. We all bleed and we all love our families - there are more similarities than differences amongst people.

[Frazzled]

I am glad I am not alone Gidg. Beautifully said.

[WeThree]

Hi Kate :)
I am ashamed to say that I do not know what you are talking about, I have not left the house today, or turned on the tv or radio, and have only just got on the net as I have been busy cleaning and with the kids. I agree though that it is wrong the amount of press one particular topic will get, whilst others of equal or much greater importance, get little or none.
Off to read about it now :yes:

[ForeverMine]

Things like this really get to me.

Just last week, with the train derail in a spanish city with 50+ dead and just as many missing.... I didn't see one bit of new's on that. The only reason I found out was through Yahoo, because they had it on there front page.

That's the only way I found Mumbai as well.

[Frazzled]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/terrorist-blasts-strike-mumbai/2006/07/12/1152383751183.html

[SassyMummy]

I hadn't heard about it either (mind you, I haven't seen the news today...or heard any sort of news on the radio).

What I think is pretty wrong...is when the news is going on about the war in Iraq. If there's an injuredor dead Aussie/Westerner (as in American or such) then they'll show photographs of that person...go on about what a hero that person is etc etc.

Then, they'll show a 30-second story about how the silly American troops "accidently" shot a bunch of people (or blew up something or bombed something or whatever) and killed a large number of civilians. That REALLY irritates me. Maybe it's just because I don't believe in war for any reason...who knows...

[gidgeroo]

I think we get a very sanitised version of events whether its terrorism/ war/ natural disasters etc. If we knew the whole story then I think we would really begin to doubt the decisions made by the powers that be and feel more strongly about what's going on in the world.. Does that make any sense or should I just go to bed and stop rambling.???:ecomcity: :sleeping:

[misskittyfantastico]

I sometimes wonder if we in the western world live in a bubble. Absolutely horrendous events are occuring daily in the world and are never given the airtime they deserve unless "one of our own" has been involved.
It's comforting to know that there are others who feel the same way.

[pestiferous]

It all depends on where you source your news, If you only watch channels 9, 10 or 7 you will miss 90% of what is going on in the world.

The amount of coverage on commercial stations is no different to that of Australian news in India and there are just as many (i would say even more) Indians with connections to Aus as there are Australians connected to India.

As heartless as it sounds, we could also consider (to the Indian population) the death of 200 people is not altogether 'disastrous'.

It's unfortunate and no doubt very upsetting but a few hundred people in a population of over 1 billion simply does not have the same impact as it would to us.

For the record, in NO way am i saying the bombing is any less important because it was in India and not Aus.

I am simply pointing out that 200 people in India would reap the same media reaction as 2 or 20 would here.

Without a closer connection to such a tragedy EG. an australian being involved and if it were not for the fact it was a bombing and not a natural disaster or accident there would be even less coverage if any, and very few people would give a damn.

122 russians have died in a plane crash does anyone care that this is not being covered ?






..

[CarolineF]

Sort of on topic, but I have always been annoyed when I have read headlines such as:

"Airliner goes down - 5 Britons killed"

or

"Hotel bombed - No Australian fatalities"

When in both cases there were hundreds killed, but only the fate of the nationals warranted a mention.:(

I think the coverage of the India bombings is probably indicative of the same antipathy. Unless it directly affects a nations public, the media believe noone is really interested.:shame:

[OceBel]

yes it upsets me becasue they are not showing enough media coverage, basically becasue its india, poor country, 3rd world , no aussies. i heard about it on tv but havent seen any front pae story on it yet.

[priya]

hi pestiferous,

i am of indian origin and totally support your idea that the population of India is one billion so 200 doesn't matter. But these are official figures. They may be more casualties and when your family member is involved even one death can matter.
Hope i don't offend you.

[kirstenriley]

I also think it depends on what 3 world country the news happens to be in (indonesia, east timor etc), whether it affects australians or not. When the tsunami hit, we donated some 20 odd million dollars (which is fantastic) that we managed to raise in a few months, yet for the whole of that year only 400 odd thousand was donated to relief organisations in Africa where millions die every year.

Sorry, i think i watch too much Oprah.

[pestiferous]

yes it upsets me becasue they are not showing enough media coverage, basically becasue its india, poor country, 3rd world , no aussies. i heard about it on tv but havent seen any front pae story on it yet.


Poor India! 3rd world? It may have been so, but India has not been a 3rd world country since the mid nineties and are far more advanced than almost every western country in the world.

Today, it is a 2nd world country and by 2010 it will be first world. (as per the OECD, UNHCR, UNESCO, Poor and Standards, Wall Street Gurus, etc.) It is primed to be the only other World Power beside the US which will, at that time have similar and equal capbilities.

Yes India is ripe with poverty and there is massive difference between caste and class. but as it is today, even beggards turn down US $ 1.00 saying 'we are better off with it" and accept nothing less that US $ 5.00 to US $ 10.00 if you want to give it to them. offer a beggar a piece of fruit instead of cash and you'll never forget the look of disgust you will see!

Most 'beggars' in India own white goods and electricals that some in australia would consider luxuries! take a walk through the slums of delhi and see 58cm televisions flicker behind beggars leaning against shiny new mopeds as they chat away on mobile phones.

No car over 10 years old is allowed on any major city roads (just like in Japan). Foreign companies who buy the "old" cars ship them off to Australia, New Zealand and some other countries. if you like we, could say feeding off India's scraps!

Poor India is a fallacy based on facts of yore. Poverty exists, but so does it in Australia and the US as well. Just the percentage and type of poverty varies to a lesser degree.

Poor 3rd world India, In the forefront of the IT industry since the moment an Indian created the pentium chip to the fact only 2 coutries possess the 'super computer' the US and of course..........India.

heading Medical /Pharmacutical fields where US and UK companies must try to bully India out of making supposedly expensive medicines for less than a few US dollars !

Poor 3rd world India, where so called 1st world countries beg to have even half of the technology India has. Think Harvard's new motto "we buy cars from japan, cheap goods from china and get all our brains from India! " with 38% of 'US' doctors being Indian, 37% of US scientists (including NASA) being Indian, 23% of american Billionaires being Indian, 25% of us 5 star hotels being owned by Indian


Poor 3rd world India, where the US Presidency is making special arrangements to break all US Laws (International and Congressional) for Poor India alone out of every single country in the world - with respect to NPT Agreements.

why ? Because it is coming of age and is a world power!


3 per cent of Indians may own 97 per cent of the national wealth. But all is changing for the better with India today having in excess of the US Population of 230 million semi-millionaires.


The main reason the media is not showing much of India's recent misery is cause:

1. Channel Nine will not touch India after the Indian Government told the Late Kerry Packer where he could put the AU $ 2 billion which he tried to invest in India;

2. Murdoch is not yet given any rights to Indian Media as he is an American - had he remained an Australian, he would have had rights to buy the Media he wanted as a citizen of the Commonwealth;

3. India does not want to associate itself more with the US as Bin Laden recently (around March or April 2006) added India to his pet enemies of the US, Jews and Eurpoe. Consequently, permitting US Media better coverage would enhance Bin Laden's new pledges and give him more power through the media. In order to capture his co-conspirators, India has thpught it better to quietly get on with the job of arresting and hanging the perpetrators of this ghastly crime.

The more publicity Lashkar E Toiba and Al Qaeda receive, the more they benefit and the more chaos they do create.

Famous Aussie saying:

"The quiet Australian gets on with the job and gets it done".

Exactly what is happening in India today.

[jessgray]

i think the stuff in lebanon and israel is getting more coverage coz 100 aussies are stranded in lebanon. i think its silly not to do more coverage of india.

[miriams]

My husband is from Bangalore, South India. The event itself is upsetting but it doesn't exactly rattle us that it is not getting more coverage. Firstly, by giving such an event excessive coverage, you are basically giving the perpetrators what they desire - the stirring up of fear and hatred. This attack is as much against average Indian Muslims as it is against Indian Hindus because most Indian Muslims do not agree with the beliefs, let alone the horrible tactics, of people like those in Al Qaeda, LET, etc. This drives the fundamentalists nuts because they want Indian Muslims to see their Hindu neighbours as untermenschen - people to be conquered and enslaved again ( as they often were in Mughal times). They also don't like the syncretist nature of most Indian Muslims where they enjoy and participate in Indian music, art, culture etc. They see it as decadent and against Islam. So they hope that by the bombings, right-wing Hindus will be encouraged to persecute ordinary Muslims and this will give them more recruits to their cause in the future. The whole world is sick because of religious fundamentalists on all sides. Even though it's irrational, I sometimes just wish the Messiah they all wish for would come along and whip all their a@#es royally. :mad:

[Lunar]

It is a terrible world we live in. I seriously have hardly watched the news in the last month! I know I should but it really depresses me, and the thought of my children growing up in such a world filled with hatred, bombings, killings and terrorists groups and gangs scares me to death! I just want to shut off from it. I know that sounds horrible and incredibly selfish, but I am severly depressed as it is and the thought of something like this happening to Australia ( no doubt it won't be far away) scares me so much. I love my girls more than anything in the world and it's things like this that make me feel so incredeble helpless. What would I do if that happened to us??? What would you do??? These thought run through my head everytime I hear about more bombings and attacks. There is nothing WE can do but hope and pray that it doesn't come to our backyard.

I feel so sad for all that are affected by the attacks, I pray that they are safe and war is over. I know it sounds corny, but I really do wish and pray for world peace.

:crying: :crying: :crying: