Usually I like to steer clear of political things in this blog too, but something I read recently really grinds my gears.

There is a hurricane having gone on, still going on, not sure, in New Orleans, the storm itself is lovingly called Katrina. What really irked me was a quote from some mayor in the area, and then reprinted in CNN in bold as if it was an important quote.

‘This is our tsunami’ he says…

The article then goes on to explain the reference… “referring to the December 26, 2004, tsunami that killed more than 226,000 people in the Indian Ocean region.” At the top of the article it says the deathtoll, as it stands, is 55, likely to rise…

Is it going to rise by 225945 more people? Or is having 55 forward moving industrious clever U.S’ians die simply worth 226,000 backward poor etc. etc. people who died in the actual newsworthy event?

I wonder if anyone else finds that invocation offensive.

Edit:
Now they’ve invoked Hiroshima
“I can only imagine that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago,” (login required, use BugMeNot)

Yes, I understand that it’s a horrible situation, and compared with everything being fine, that hurricane has made this very much less fine. But they just keep comparing their situations to ones much much worse, I dunno, find it arrogant.

Edit2:

Another aspect I don’t like about the coverage that goes on with these types of things is you get 2 or 3 stories related to the actual event, and then at least one about “Canadian’s may be victims” and “Canadian found safe” and such, I mean, sure, *maybe* it’s of interest, but it’s still sort of an us vs. them in the face of a disaster. “No canadian’s were harmed by god’s randomly exploding people, phew, that’s good, in other news, all other nations are dead, meh” Anyway, I think this will be my last rant on this, heh.

When people die, it’s usually not a good thing (I am not in favor of immortality though), but I don’t see any reason to quantify it other than by the obvious methods, it’s not a contest. I’d say it’s the fault of the media, but the quotes were media-generated.. but they were media-focussed, so maybe they are at fault, okay, that’s fine with me. I’d rather focus my blame on larger institutions that individuals, it’s less tiring

Edit3:

Nope, not my last rant, just wanted to throw this in.

Very last words, ‘Brown “remains focused on helping Americans through the worst natural disaster in history,” FEMA said.’ It’s nitpicky, but I’ll still dock them karma for not saying ‘their’ worst natural disaster in history. I don’t beleive they can possibly mean that the splash they had can compare to other natural disasters in history, but given all of the above, I wouldn’t put it past them.