I started one here in D & D http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=113248 I didn't put "Memorial Day" in the title so you might've missed it.
^ Except without mention of this in the mainstream media I doubt many here would even know there was an earthquake in Indonesia.
Still the 'Big' shows could change America's response with a Large focus on the situation. Most American's have moved past the Tsunami relief effort, but I have found alot of interest in email updates and internets sites that still cover the massive rebuilding challenges. I wasn't making a right or wrong judgment, just emphasizing the media's role in 'shaping' our compassion focus. Fatigue is a good word because by and large the global tragedies - from natural disasters to wars, starvation and disease are prevalent around the world. Saturation points can be reached, here in Houston a murder story a night is expected on the local channels.
To be perfectly fair, I'm not so sure it's just an American thing.. I'm in Singapore and although there's still arguably a good deal of media coverage (what with geographical proximity and all), the average person on the street here doesn't know much beyond "Yes, there was a quake in Indonesia recently", and most likely doesn't care either. Even the news agencies seem to be getting, for want of a better word, bored - and it's been, what, less than a week? I guess you could put it down to human nature and the way we inherently pay attention to novelty while disregarding the repetitious, as callous as that sounds.. "compassion fatigue" is probably just the nice way of putting it Oh btw, hello everyone..
yes, i do think that "compassion fatigue" has taken over the mindset of many americans today which could explain why the situation in Darfur has not received much coverage. events around the world seem to have taken a turn for the worse in such a short span of a few years that we are now used to it. natural disasters, genocide, war, murder, etc. are a much more common place right now than it has been in recent memory.
Cool a Singaporean Clutchfan. So is there a big Rockets following in Singapore? I'll make sure to bring some Rox gear next time I'm there.
Nice, you visit often? Big Rockets following - don't count on it, heh. Football (or soccer, if you must) >>> basketball here And of those who actually follow the NBA, 90% of the time it's Jordan and the Bulls I mention the Rocks and nobody knows what I'm talking about
^ I've got family that lives in Singapore so I try to get there every now and then. Haven't been able to make it there this year but hopefully soon. The impression I got of Singaporean hoops fans was that they root for whatever team is hot. When I was there a few years ago there seemed to be a lot of Lakers fans and when I was there in 1995 most of them were rooting for the Magic because of media saturation of Shaq. I remember trying to convince some of them to root for the Rox since "Stay humble and stay hungry" might as well been Lee Kuan Yew's motto for Singapore. I was wondering if Yao has pulled in more Rox fans in Singapore but it doesn't sound like it.
I think your impression is accurate.. the NBA just isn't that popular here, so you naturally get less diversity in the fans. I'd put it down to a lack of televised coverage, my major gripe because I only get to see the Rockets like once every two or three months And you'd think the Chinese here would get behind Yao, but it seems they prefer to think of him as a stiff without even watching him play Oh well, thread officially derailed..
Since we're going off topic, Fanny Mae was busted for accounting fraud over their 700 billion plus mortgage assets recently and had to pay a 417 million dollar fine. Maybe there's corruption outrage fatigue as well....
Even worse is the assumption, on my part and probably a lot of other Westerners, that the Indonesians, somehow, just didn't "prepare" for this disaster well-enough, in the context of Earthquake-proof construction, and stuff like that.
That assumption isn't totally off base. Construction standards in Indonesia aren't very good and certainly no where near the standards that we have in earthquake prone parts of America and Japan. I can tell you from having visited Yogajakarta that in general building standards are poor even compared to non-earthquake areas of the US. This is a huge problem throughout the World and has been one of the causes for so many deaths in places from Turkey to South America and if countries prone to earthquakes can bring their standards up that right there could greatly reduce the loss of life. Of course earthquake resistant construction isn't cheap but there are many simple things that could be done. For instance in SE Asia many buildings are built with unreinforced masonry (masonry that doesn't have rebar in it.) if they could employ some crossbracing on the walls that would strengthen them right there. Also some of the traditional building methods of building using wood and bamboo joinery could resist earthquakes better since they flexed rather than crumbled. Encouraging people to use those instead of cheap modern ways of building could help too.
