Gregory's ServerI want to live in a world where 500 migrants lost at sea evokes more concern than 3 millionaires lost in a vanity submarine.
 47 comments
@MeanwhileinCanada The submarine story sells more advertising than drowning African migants.  @MeanwhileinCanada most people seem to be scolfing but a few media outlets are trying to pull as much interest as the Malaysia air crash. Personally Iโm over it. @MeanwhileinCanada I want to live in a world where one migrant lost at sea raises more concern than 500 dead billionaires.   @MeanwhileinCanada @Andres @MeanwhileinCanada Aye, but we are only a fraction and the world has taken a turn to the ultra right, even bordering to pure fascism in some cases.  @MeanwhileinCanada   @MeanwhileinCanada How much is concern and how much is interest because of the novelty/uniqueness of the situation? If you mean the amount of effort being made to rescue the passengers, I would like to see even half of that expended on rescuing refugees who are in danger at sea. It's one of the oldest moral codes that you always come to the aid of anyone in trouble at sea. @anne_twain @MeanwhileinCanada The novelty does make it more interesting. I'm not immune to that effect. But it should have no bearing whatsoever on where our efforts and resources are devoted. Every human life has value. And billionaires already have plenty of people to look out for them. So 100% of our time and energy should go to helping the refugees. @hosford42 @anne_twain @MeanwhileinCanada Furthermore, the billionaires who went out of their way to avoid a regulatory safety framework because "they knew better" already opted out. You don't get to opt out of society when you don't like it, then expect it to cover your butt when things get bad. Contrast the migrants, who would all have absolutely preferred a safe way to seek a better life, but got forced into terrible choices between bad options  @anne_twain @MeanwhileinCanada I agree that if they were just dead it would be a footnote, the fact that it's a slow motion train wreck over the course of a week means there's plenty of time to speculate and get dramatic. Like the Deepwater Horizon vs the train crash oil spill in Ohio, once the disaster happened there's nothing to do but assign blame and be done. Fuck Europe for its callous disregard of people at sea.   I want to live in a world where migration has become unnecessary and millionaires don't exist. @MeanwhileinCanada   @MeanwhileinCanada I thought about this a bit overnight, and I concluded that it's the novelty aspect that attracts people. Billionaire, Titanic, submarine, disappeared: four words that haven't been seen in a story before. ...not that people aren't crass, jingoistic and obsessed with the rich and famous. But even anti-capitalists such as myself see this as a story on our radar: "obsessive consumption has terrible consequences". @MeanwhileinCanada I share your anger. You raise an interesting point. I think a big part of the problem is news coverage. Itโs massive in the UK where it leads every bulletin and dominates the programme. Most people I know are more concerned about the migrants, and on here too. My personal view is that the people who feel the other way are the rich and the racists. And think of the billions who have no means of knowing whatโs going on โ probably 90% of the world who would side with migrants.  @MeanwhileinCanada We should learn from Mother Nature; #Orcas havenโt attacked boats (or #submarines) with migrants in them! @MeanwhileinCanada that's big concern so that's why the EU funded that wall in Turkey. Smuggler boat ticket cost $5000, and maybe tickets to Canada cost much less. Open visa free travel with all the world and they'd come. @MeanwhileinCanada I want to live in a world where no one is so poor they have to risk migrating on a janky boat, and no one is so rich they can pay to go to the Titanic in a janky submarine @joyographic @MeanwhileinCanada it's not only the poor. When a whole country like Syria or Ukraine is upset, you have people from all classes trying to get on any boat they can (car, bus, train?) @MeanwhileinCanada Ithink you are! Probably realistic if you substract media hype.just ask around...    @MeanwhileinCanada thatโs because the migrants are already dead and the reason/blame is pretty easily laid. (As unpleasant as that sounds) Whereas with the other you have Schrรถdingerโs #submarine . @MeanwhileinCanada or those trapped Chilean miners and the boy scouts trapped in a flooded cavern. Kids trapped in wells, balloon boy, none of them deserve attention. See how virtuous I am? You all should be ashamed.  @MeanwhileinCanada @mloxton @MeanwhileinCanada @MeanwhileinCanada Iโm old enough to remember when we used to! @MeanwhileinCanada You think itโs a factor of individualsโ net worth and not the mystery and intrigue of the missing sub? @MeanwhileinCanada I hope the millionaires and billionaires are paying attention to all this. This isn't a "Balloon Boy" or "Soccer Team Trapped in a Cave" thing where the world is waiting anxiously for their rescue. We may not be quite to "Put the rich in guillotines" levels yet, but we have certainly crossed the "if the rich are so hollow and dead inside that they want to put their own heads in guillotines, I will certainly watch" line. @MeanwhileinCanada In Face of death all people are equal. There is no amount of money that can safe your life or your beloved life when your time is over. |
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