Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Media led compassion
Generally speaking my friends are a compassionate lot. Many here in Australia have recently been voicing their feelings for Australian citizens who may be facing the death penalty because of crimes committed in countries where death is seen as an acceptable penalty for serious crimes.
I feel their compassion is sparked by the media. I wonder if they would spare a thought for these people if they were not regularly being reminded of the situation on TV and in the press. I wonder how much compassion we have for the 720,000 innocent people who face death in the next month. They are rarely mentioned in the media. Do we spare them a thought?
720,000 is, I believe, the number of human beings who will die from starvation in the world over the next month. And the following month there will be another 720,00 who die. And the next month, and the next...
If the media could possibly give as much publicity to each and every one of these poor unfortunate people as they have for each of the Bali nine, maybe our compassion would be moved and those of us who are living a comfortable life here in Australia and other wealthy Western countries might think deeply about how we might make changes in our own personal lifestyle that could help to save the lives of a few of those innocent people.
I feel their compassion is sparked by the media. I wonder if they would spare a thought for these people if they were not regularly being reminded of the situation on TV and in the press. I wonder how much compassion we have for the 720,000 innocent people who face death in the next month. They are rarely mentioned in the media. Do we spare them a thought?
720,000 is, I believe, the number of human beings who will die from starvation in the world over the next month. And the following month there will be another 720,00 who die. And the next month, and the next...
If the media could possibly give as much publicity to each and every one of these poor unfortunate people as they have for each of the Bali nine, maybe our compassion would be moved and those of us who are living a comfortable life here in Australia and other wealthy Western countries might think deeply about how we might make changes in our own personal lifestyle that could help to save the lives of a few of those innocent people.
