The Real Thing

[mamculuna]

I was thinking about the differences in how we perceive natural disasters as opposed to man-made ones. A terrorist act like 9/11, etc., is set up for maximum public exposure--the images that appear on TV and online all over the world are the real point. Since we get those images so clearly and so immediately, the event seems real to us. But the natural disasters aren't set up that way. The news leaks out, a little at a time. No one was filming the waves that hit during the Tsunami, and only now are we beginning to get some visual images that make it seem real to us.

But it is real. This is a site about one refugee camp before the disaster and the people who lived there. It makes it real to me:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/ceret/52383.html

Comments

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I am seeing those images now--sat up late last night watching CNN's Hong Kong site showing exactly the ones you describe. But at first we had no images here, and in fact I first heard of "the floods" in Sri Lanka on LJ the next morning--I think it must have been the middle of the night here when it hit. (However, I'm not a very good TV watcher--may have missed something). Also, the fact that it was Christmas meant that people weren't watching TV as much as usual (at least in my family). The papers had fairly good written coverage (yes, the running death tallies), and NPR had excellent reporting, but the visuals weren't like those the day after 9/11, when we'd all seen the towers hit a few dozen times. I guess I was struck (again) by how acts of terror are planned with a careful eye to the media.

Several of my LJ friends had mentioned how unreal it seemed and how they didn't feel a close connection to it. I thought this might be related to the limited images, but now people seem to be responding (and the coverage is more dramatic).

[ironed_orchid]

Yeah, I thought the fact that it might still be Christmas, or the early morning of the 26th, in the US might account for some of the things you mention.

Other LJers have mentioned an "us" and "them" attitude in the reporting, in the sense that the focus has been "what if something like this happened to us?". I think proximity may be a factor. But more generously I think that sometimes we need to make an imaginative leap by projecting the figures onto landscapes and populations that we know, in order to grasp the immensity of such events. Also, in the first footage I saw, the death toll was under 5,000, and although it was steadily climbing I'm not sure anyone was prepared for the sheer loss of life we're seeing now.

I guess I was struck (again) by how acts of terror are planned with a careful eye to the media.
Indeed. Because it's rare to have a random act of terrorism, the whole point being to show people that you exist and then to use it to get across your demands or grievances (although, once those have been established, subsequent
acts are explained in terms of them).

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the us and them. Maybe it's because I just came back from Asia or have so many Asian connections, but I am totally transfixed by this and have a huge need for information about what's happened and a compulsion to talk about what it means. After 9/11, the whole country reacted this way, but now, only a few do. It worries me, to tell the truth, that this seems so distant to so many.

[ironed_orchid]

To me, the internet seems to be filled with it, but maybe I am looking through my own lenses. I was pleased to see both google and amazon respond by putting links to aid agencies on their front pages. I'm glad to know the sort of people who do take notice and care.