Well, just to be cynical about it, I always held the sneaking suspicion that the reason the BBC had more international coverage was the lingering memory of a time when the British controlled a world-wide empire, subjugating local populations left and right. A disaster in Asia, for example, was significant, because of Imperial interests, either local or nearby.
Hey, the sun set on that empire long ago, Tommy. Give it up.
All true, but one needs to recognize that the resources used to construct buildings in Seattle - including structural content, design and engineering, etc, are probably orders of magnitude greater than the resources used to construct buildings in Bam. It is possible to build an earthquake-resistant infrastructure, but one needs a robust modern economy to do it. So, the sense in which these deaths were avoidable isn’t very substantial, unless you think that global economic inequality is a minor thing to overcome. Perhaps Iran could alter building codes in helpful ways without making it impossible for Iranians to build things, but it’s hard to tell from here.
I expect you understand all this, but just the way you compared this earthquake to those on the West Coast without mention of the vast disparity in available resources made me think explicit clarification was in order.
Oh yeah, and wolfsbane is a drooling idiotic fuckwad. It’s truly rare that you can find someone who can cram so many disparate misconceptions into such brief statements.
Actually, the tragedy is that it isn’t.
Well, it’s the holidays and all. I’m trying to make him feel special.
You’re right, I do understand it. That is, in fact, my very point. Thank you for explaining it better than I could.
Of all the Middle Eastern Muslim countries, Iran is probably the only one where the average guy on the street actually likesAmerica and Americans. Don’t confuse the rhetoric of the gov’t with what people actually think.
So very true John. Astute observers of the region will be aware that the Iranian elective legislature (not the zealous mullahs) have been making more and more friendly overtures towards the USA in the last 3 years since 9/11. As tragic as the earthquake is, it nonetheless represents an opportunity for the United States to graciously show immense good will and caring towards our fellow man - and I think you’d find that such a thing would NOT go unnoticed.
By the way Bryan Ekers? Forgive my lack of personal knowledge regarding Canadian public broadcasting… but I’m interested in something… does CTV have a similar charter to the BBC? Or is that another network?
CTV is a private corporation, no different from any of the American networks (and, in fact, carries a sizeable chunk of American programming - only regulations forcing them to carry some Canadian content keeps them from going all-out Yankee). It’s primary rival is CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a government-owned entity with goals similar to those of the BBC. In addition to its television stations, the CBC owns a series of radio stations, reaching at least 99% of the population (naturally, this proves most difficult and expensive in the sparsely-populated far north), as well as carrying French-language programming for Quebec and New Brunswick on the Radio-Canada mini-network.
The CBC is known for quality, albeit occasionally dull programming. If you ever meet a Canadian, ask him to hum the theme music of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada. It’s quite stirring.
Periodically, people call for the CBC to be privatized. I think it’s fine the way it is.
Thanks mate. I knew that Canada had a BBC type organisation - but sadly it’s named eluded me.
It sounds as though Australia’s ABC and the CBC are effectively identical in infrastructure and implementation. That’s cool.
Now all the USA has to do is start a similar organisation called the YBC! 
What really got me to turn off Fox today was when they asked this question: Should America forget political problems with Iran and aid the Iranian people?
That question made me sick.
As a practical matter the TV news can’t do much more than announce it if they have no video. Given the location in a relatively remote area (by TV standards) it’s going to take them hours to get any useable video on the air.
If they put up a map graphic and a death toll then you now have about 90% of the info that they do at the time the broadcast is made. Given that, it’s not like they can then just sit on a map graphic for X number of minutes until you feel it’s been appropriately covered.
If it were in Paris, or London or Frankfurt or Rome then yes it’d get more coverage. Because there are more cameras and more satellites and phone lines available. It’s not really a matter of A list or B list countries, it’s a matter of not having anything to SHOW you in a VISUAL medium.
Regards,
-Bouncer-
This constant harping at FOX News is getting really tired. Turn the damn channel off if you don’t llike it! If you need to rant, take some jabs at something really obnoxious that FOX News does-- airs those freakin’ Cristy Lane CD comercials several times a day. Has anyone ever actually bought one of those CDs?
Actually, since the lag time on pointing out the lies generally varied from a matter of days (Niger uranium) to a matter of hours (deliberate distortions of statements attributed to Blix), it was, in this case, easy to spot the liars almost as soon as they spoke. (And 14 moinths later, they still look like the liars they are.)
Starting to suck?
Where have you been? =p
Isn’t this the same channel bitching baout how no one ever covers Iranian democracy marches?
Couldn’t they roll out a series of ‘experts’ to express their opinions? Or does that only happen with terrorism scares?
Watching FOX-News right now (Sunday night)
The lead international item was the Iran quake. Ran for about 6 minutes or so, too. That’s pretty long for a news report. Guess they just needed to get people over there.
btw, they really did a good job of highlighting just how devastating this quake is and how much real help they need.
Who knows, maybe FOX reads The Dope!
That’s two Americans.
Ever wonder why in any situation in another country where people die there’s always Tom saying, "blah blah blah happened and blah blah number of people were killed… blah of which were Americans.
As if an American life is more important than another. It makes just as much difference in everyone’s life (ok, everyone but the family of the American that died) if that person were of ANY nationality. PEOPLE DIED. so many hundred people died… not so many Americans and some other people.
Well, people do that all the time. When, I dunno, some plane crashes in South Korea or whatever, what do we hear on the local news? “2 Chicagoans among 180 dead in plane crash.” No one thinks that Chicago lives are more important that Seoul lives, but in Chicago, we want to know about our neighbors and friends.
Why are Australians so upset about the Bali bombing? I’m sure they would be sad to hear of the loss of human life no matter what, as it is to all of us, but it’s a really big deal to them in particular because a bunch of Australians were killed.
It’s just human nature to identify with people from our same city or country.
Let me put a few facts straight. In the California mudslide, they have found a total of 12 bodies and 2 are still missing (one of those still missing is a child of less than 1 years and a 14 yr old child). Most of the victims were children. Two of the bodies were found over 4 miles away from the campground.
The building the people were in was a 2 story structure. The bottom floor is totally gone. There was a 12 foot high wall of mud that hit the building. And actually this mudslide is a continuation of an earlier story where hundreds died–the fires California had a few months ago. So you might ask, why were these people in a burn area during a rainstorm. I am sure they thought they were perfectly safe, they were in what looked like a secure building, not out camping on the ground in tents. The rain was harder than it was thought it was going to be.
Last week there was a 6.5 earthquake in the Central Coast of California–2 people died. They died as they tried to leave a building and bricks fell on them (the building was very old and had not been retrofited)
Bam, Iran earthquake was 6.6 and killed >20K people (estimates say number could be >30K).
I sometimes wonder how a large city in the mid to eastern parts of the US would fare in a similar size earthquake. On the west coast we have law regarding buildings so that they withstand the forces of an earthquake. I hope to never see the answer to my wondering.
p.s. Be prepared for more news from southern California this week as another storm system is coming thru and will probably produce more mudslides.