Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Not a contest

The news media's obsession with ranking countries by the amount of tsunami aid is getting old. Americans should be proud of our government's generosity and should be even more proud of the generosity of private citizens and organizations. But it's not a contest.

The real story, and what we should really be concerned about, is whether food, water and other necessities of life are actually getting to the people who need it. There are always opportunists in disasters who figure out how to profit from the miseries of others. Black markets proliferate. Food and water meant for suffering victims is sold to the highest bidders. Maybe the media could lay off the rankings for awhile and report on something that matters.

2 comments:

Julie D. said...

Precisely! Although I did see a very distressing story today about tsunami orphans being sold on the black market for adoption ... or worse.

thc said...

Julie: I've seen some of those stories today as well. At least the media has found something else, but these new tales are horrible.