A few days ago, I expressed my irritation with the coverage journalists had given the drought/starvation situation in Niger. Today's New York Times Book Review —Bad News — contains an essay by Seventh Circuit judge Richard Posner on the state of news media in the U.S. Even acknowledging Judge Posner's conservative bent (see The Becker-Posner Blog, Judge Posner's comments worth reading.
Online donations for famine relief in Niger can be made to The United Nations World Food Programme.
This morning CNN showed heart-rending footage of people -- adults, children, babes in arms -- dying of starvation in Niger, where drought has placed almost 4 million human lives in jeopardy. Miles O'Brien asked the reporter on the scene, "Why is it that the relief workers' warnings about the likely consequences of the drought fell on deaf ears?"
The correspondent stared for a moment, then said, "Because people weren't paying attention to Africa as they should."
I was astounded that O'Brien could ask that question with a straight face. While people have been dying of thirst and starvation in Africa, CNN and other "news outlets" have been keeping us up to date on almost everything but this. I remember the day when every ten minutes or so, I saw a story on CNN about Tom Cruise proposing to Katie Holmes. I remember hearing endlessly about Paris Hilton.
According to an article posted Sunday on CNN's website:
The warnings have been coming for months. The United Nations first appealed for assistance in November and got almost no response. Another appeal for $16 million in March generated about $1 million. The latest appeal on May 25 for $30 million has received about $10 million.
Donations jumped dramatically in the last week because of increased media attention and TV images of starving children, U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said Friday. Egeland estimated that thousands of children are dying in Niger.
When relief workers in Africa give warnings, you and I only hear them if journalists report them to us. 150,000 people have died in Niger, and "the warnings have been coming for months", but only now are news agencies actually spreading the story. Ironically, an article posted on CNN last Thursday, "How the Rich Ignored the Niger Crisis", there is not a word about the failure of journalists to cover this story.
Whose deaf ears, Mr. O'Brien?
Call me Sputnik Child.
Two days before my 6th birthday — October 4, 1957 — the Soviet Union launched a 183 lb. basketball called "Sputnik", Earth's first artificial satellite. Nothing can illustrate the impact of Sputnik's 98-minute orbit of the Earth than the fact that I am at this moment watching the NASA TV feed of the pre-flight countdown of the Space Shuttle Discovery — in a small window on the desktop of my PowerMac G5.
I got the idea for this blog when I turned fifty. It seemed appropriate, since 50 is a traditional "big birthday", and less than a month before my birthday, the world had changed dramatically with the destruction of the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001.
That was almost four years ago. In the meantime, I built a different blog (Teacher: Year One), and have co-authored another (Urban Education Journal).
So, what with one thing and another, I never got around to really maintaining this one. But, as I sit recovering from major abdominal surgery (a great reminder of one's mortality), watching the continuing echoes of the 9/11 events, I realize that there are ideas I would like to put in concrete form (or as concrete as the web can ever be).
I'm not convinced anyone will be interested in what I have to say, but I didn't think anyone but my close friends would read Teacher: Year One, and I was quite wrong about that. If you enjoy what I have to say, read on. If not, I know that there a millions of other items competing for your time, so enjoy!
