It seems like nowadays news comes and goes in the blink of an eye and then is never approached until something major happens again. When I first saw the news about Japan and the devastating earthquake/tsunami I was shocked and then I thought, what is going on in Haiti?
But anyway, in Japan right now hundreds have been found dead and authorities expect that close to 1,000 people are missing but the number could definitely rise. Almost all news stations are saying the same things and HERE is an up to date article for the moment. According to many sources this could be one of the costliest natural disasters ever and danger is still looming as nuclear power plants are unstable and there are continuing aftershocks. I pray that Japan emerges ok.
Nevertheless back to my original point. What's happening with disasters like the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and what i'm about to focus about: Haiti?
Cholera has infected 252,640 people in Haiti as of today. I has killed 4672. Depending on the source, only 5-20% of the rubble has been cleared. Approximately 1.2 million people are still living in tents. One third of people do not have access to clean water and a quarter do not have access to a toilet (this is especially bad because one way cholera is spread is through feces). Most of these facts came from here and here. So why has this not been one of the centers of attention in the news? Sure there are other things going on in our country but it seems as if there is never a news article about Haiti rolling across my yahoo homepage even though they are still in a dire situation.
I think this speaks to how and what news is delivered to us as Americans. In our society today everything is so quick and fast pace that it would seem logical that what captures our attention has to move quickly also. One, to the next thing, to the next. What is happening with the oil spill cleanup? I'd be surprised if the estimated 5 million barrels of oil was cleaned up already. But the oil spill is long gone to a lot of Americans and the news stations that choose not to report about it. Our attention has run out.
So I'll leave with one final question: how long do you think it will take for the tsunami in Japan to become old news?
I think the only way it will stay in the American news cycle is for the radiation emissions to continue to grow and become problematic not only for the Japanese citizens but also other nations. This is turning out to be more than a Three Mile Island disaster and closer to Chernobyl. If it hits the Chernobyl level...we may hear about this for some time to come.
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