Bomb bloasts in Hyderabad ... Must be condemned ... Anyone in his right mind would condemn them! However, these bring out two points:
1. The Numbers.
2. What are we doing about it?
I am talking about 1. in this post. More will follow ...
The television channels are reporting that 40 people have been killed in the Hyderabad bomb blasts, and apart from this, the numbers of those injured are 100. Massive casualties. Loss of life ... There is a story that doesnt even get a mention (its just scrolling across the bottom of the tv screen). This is about 80 Cholera deaths in Orissa. I dont know why the media is reluctant to devote sound-bites to Cholera deaths? Are these not deaths? Or, maybe they are not macabre enough? Is this somewhat akin to the argument put forward in Freakonomics that more people die in swmming pool accidents than with guns, and yet, nobody ever thought about outlawing swimming pools. Maybe those deaths are not macabre enough?
This argument would simply mean that the issue is not people dying, but rather, people dying the sensational way! Should be continue walking this road? Food for thought ... If terrorist killings (which actually claim less lives than road accidents, from what statisticians tell us), stop getting media coverage, would they just die their own, natural death?
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2 comments:
Atul let m 1st congratulate you that this blog at least has not been banned from Wipro network and thats the reason why I could read your interesting blogs....
I agree with you that death thats not macabre enough are not the palette of the readers... sensation sells and thats what the media is all about.. whether its the print or the elctronic one publicity and sensationalism rocks!!!...
You open the page of any paper and what greets you is the macabre and I have noticed the satisfaction in some people's eyes that"yes all is not lost yet"... we have sensation to fill the day
Sad, but true, Debarati! Somewhere the value of human life seems to have been lost. There was a nice sms I had got the other day ... Things were meant to be used, and people to be loved. But what we are doing is, we are using people, and loving things. Though, if there are people who can understand this enough to forward the sms to others, we still have hope.
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