News in perspective?

From the ABC

"China deaths spark cover-up claim

Bilis destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes

The number of people killed in a storm that hit southern China last week has risen to more than 500 - more than double the original estimate.

Tropical Storm Bilis hit on 14 July, causing massive flooding and forcing three million people from their homes."

Pete's Points:

• Each one of the deaths that are referred to here is that of a civilian.
• Each of the homes that are referred to here is that of a civilian.

The volume of deaths and dispossession that are happening in China outnumber those that are taking place in Lebanon by close to 100% in the first case and around 500% in the case of the latter.

I wonder how many people who read the news on a daily basis recognise that while ANY death is deplorable and ANY dispossession is deplorable, the reality is that people all over the world die needlessly every day in vast numbers from lack of water or too much water (as in this case) or in the case of the recent Indonesian tsunami.

"That's different!" I hear people say, "It was a natural disaster and not military action"

OK, let's be fair about this let's just look at deaths and dispossession due to military actions by one war lord or another around the globe and how they are covered by the news media.

Does anyone really seems bother to count the bodies and the dispossession that take place elsewhere around the globe on a daily basis due to such military operations?

Oops, we can't.

There is no real daily coverage of what is happening in various countries in Africa (to name but one area of the world) apart from the occasional item about various militia that go about needlessly murdering women and children and enslaving boys and men on a wholesale scale.

Are their actions any less deplorable?

Indeed these days we actually seem to cover mass murderers in a different way. For example in another news item on the BBC it is noted that:

Ta Mok died ahead of a tribunal on the Khmer Rouge regime

Hundreds of Cambodians have paid their respects to Ta Mok, a former Khmer Rouge leader nicknamed "The Butcher".

In a traditional Buddhist funeral ceremony, incense was burned and prayers recited over Ta Mok's body, which was daubed with white powder.

The ceremony took place in Ta Mok's former stronghold of Anlong Veng, in the north of Cambodia.

Ta Mok, who died on Friday, was the regime's military commander and linked to many atrocities of the 1970s.

About 1.7 million people died under the Khmer Rouge, through a combination of starvation, disease and execution.

Ta Mok was the only Khmer Rouge leader who refused to bargain with authorities following the collapse of the regime, and he was arrested in 1999 near the Thai border.

Respects? Where is the outrage that this mass murderer escaped justice for over thirty years?

I guess some questions remain about perspective.

What value does each life and each loss of home have in the world and why is there a difference in the level of coverage and outrage that accompany different situations and circumstances?

A cynic would remark "One sells advertising. The other? Well no one really cares do they?"