Friday, August 20, 2004

our country needs a bitch-slap



while we eat drive-thru and talk on our cell phones and fret about the hilton sisters (ian i'm looking at you...) thousands of refugees from sudan, seeking sanctuary in chad from fear of being killed or raped or having their families killed or raped, scrounge for a handful of u.n.-supplied ground corn. and doesn't it look delicious.

you know what, that picture could be either of ground corn or people burying the dead (there was no caption). pick whichever makes it easier for you to sleep.

from the new york times:

Hawa Hassan Ahmed, 29, said she came to the Oure Cassoni camp after her mountain hideout in Northern Darfur was attacked by the Janjaweed. Her 6-year-old son was shot and killed before her eyes. Her 4-year-old son had his
throat slit. She escaped alone on a donkey provided by a cousin.

two points:

one - why little to no media coverage? could it be that our country's liberal, broken-heart media is more concerned with ratings than newsworthiness? it's understandable i guess; i'd personally rather see what's happening with the kobe bryant case than hear about mass genocide in some desert african country full of skinny darkies that has few petroleum resources.

two - we pull troops out of south korea, sending a clear message to north korea that their admitted and proven nuclear weapons stockpile doesn't concern us, and they should continue unfettered. does our government send these troop resources on humanitarian missions (not unlike wwII, maybe?) to help all the suffering people of sudan (as we did when we "liberated" the iraqi people from saddam)? nah. iraq has more political and financial rammifications. let's send troops there.

apparently "compassionate" conservatism doesn't apply to people of foreign naitons who aren't in the news. god must not care about the people of sudan, since he hasn't directed george to do thing one about it. i'm sure glad he's pro-life though. it really shows.

album du jour: saturday looks good to me every night

5 comments:

Unknown said...

It's hearing things like that that make me feel physically ill about living in this country.

No Milk Please said...

i think bloggers have the power to change all of this. we have the power to be heard when the media is silent. your post help brings to light the suffering that is going on worldwide...

Phillip said...

you're absolutely right no milk. i get alot of my news from other blogs. it's important that we all keep each other updated and privy to REAL news and not be lured in by network and cable "news". our middle class is quickly disappearing, and a large part of it is ignorance to the real issues that we, in fact, have control over. enough people just need to realize this to make changes.

Layla/Jane (whichever you prefer) said...

just the reason i got rid of cable a couple weeks ago. bloggers know what's going on better than CNN seems to.

Phillip said...

jane, i got rid of my cable about a month ago as well. the only thing i will watch is pbs or cspan but i still catch those with basic.