The content on this webpage contains paid/affiliate links. When you click on any of our affiliate link, we/I may get a small compensation at no cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure for more info -----------------------
Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:30 am
James Wolcott writes: “I don’t always say what I mean, or mean what I say …”
Well, that should save all of us the bother of ever reading him again. In other Wolcott news, the Tsunami Buddies – sworn foes of Wolcott’s rival Hurricane Rooter gang – welcome The Daily Telegraph’s Harry Mount to their club:
I got truly upset about the tsunami only when I discovered I knew someone who died in it. Until then, I’d been shocked and fascinated.
The person Mount “knew” turns out to be fashion photographer Simon Atlee, whom Mount met exactly once.
- Actually I think he’s saying that news is entertainment. Indeed that’s what’s wrong with it. It’s a business, and the only functioning business model is attracting soap opera news fans, because they’re the only reliable daily audience. Hard news doesn’t sell (think town council meetings). So no business can survive on it.
Hence blogs, as somewhere for the disgusted to find their voice at least represented.
Disaster as entertainment is always a component, though.
Some efforts at doing good do in fact do some good, at least for a while, which is the other side of the news cynicism problem.
The right approach is ignore everything and send helicopters instantly, which is more or less what there is to cheer about. Money, so far, probably hasn’t had any effect, and its effect later on will be mixed, probably. Intra-organization goals come first, once you get an organization with its own options. The U.N. comes ready made with a million internal goals of its own. A special U.N. boat might be a solution, if it could be sunk.
- Have you heard of John Aspinall? He was always arguing in favour of natural disasters, because it showed that nature was still untamed, etc. He also thought that most of the world�s humans should be culled in a scheme of �beneficial genocide�. Mad as a box of frogs, yet friends with Paul Johnson, James Goldsmith, Mrs Thatcher, etc.
I miss him, actually. He was a real hoot. His employees kept getting killed by tigers.
Posted by Harry Hutton on 01/03 at 10:45 PM • #
- Rog, some formatting tags are automatically converted, while others (such as blockquote> are not.Posted by Andrea Harris on 01/03 at 11:03 PM • #
- I have found some of the tsunami-related stories fascinating, but not exciting. I find it difficult to be excited over any story that’s based on a tragedy like we see unfolding here.
The stories I find fascinating have to do with survivors: the ‘good guys’ and how they have mobilized to help the victims and the stories of how people managed to survive being killed by the tsunami.
I have avoided the stories pertaining to how people lost their loved ones. I read a couple and couldn’t read any more, they were too sad and depressing.
I can’t say I ever found anything pertaining to this tragedy exciting. I don’t think I’ve ever found a disaster exciting.
The UN side-story is also interesting in an infuriating way. I’m so angry that our tax dollars are taken and given to this agency that preens for the cameras and writes wonderful reports but really does little but spend money on itself.
Silly me, until I read otherwise I always assumed UN relief workers would live very cheaply (pitch a tent and rough it) when aiding at disaster sites. I never imagined they’d live like kings and queens while the people they were aiding were wondering where their next meal was coming from.
Posted by CJosephson on 01/03 at 11:04 PM • #
- The UN has been exposed.
Bludgers, REMF’s, no hopers, you call it.They posture and preach, but when the shit hits the fan, where are they?
In UN HQ in New York, debating whether there should be a conference or not, and who should attend and who may be offended by not wearing Islamic fancy dress.
The useless, useless fuckers.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 01/04 at 12:38 AM • #
By the way [OTADMIN] I’ve set up a quick-’n’-dirty guide to how to format text and links and such in the comments. See above the comment entry box. I’ll pretty it up later so everything doesn’t look so grungy. [/OTADMIN]