Image
File
inset
kay folks, this week I’m just
plain pissed. In past weeks, I’ve
managed to sit back and guffaw
about electoral reform, apathy, and other
such things. I can have a sense of humour
left Overs N
a Iain Reeve, OP Columnist
about these issues; I live in a country
where most of my basic needs ate never
really in danger of not being met. But
people like you and I—who are fortunate
in this respect—are in the minority.
It would be pointless and redundant
for me to list statistics that never manage
to truly express the human aspect of this
situation. This problem has already been
overburdened with statistics—it has been
separated from what this issue should
really be about—plain and simple human
compassion and sensitivity.
Here is my best way of articulating the
way I feel about the issue: this world is
beyond capable of supporting all its peo-
ple. If we could support everyone, much
April 6/2005
of the motivation for war, terrorism, and
human-rights abuses would melt away.
But we do not do this. We accept these
inequalities as a means to an end. The end
is the ability of us here in the West to live
a life most extravagant. It lets us waste
more than some eat, spend fortunes on
things we quickly dispose of and forget,
and remove ourselves from any responsi-
bility because it is “so far away.”
Recently, the world took a rather dra-
matic turn from this trend. As those of
you who were not on Mars over the holi-
days know, on Boxing Day a massive
tsunami devastated East Asia, killing close
to 300,000. The outpouring of aid money,
from our country and others, was
unprecedented. I was truly honoured to
be Canadian as even those who were by
no means wealthy emptied their pockets
to help those dying and suffering on the
other side of the world. Billions upon bil-
lions of dollars were pledged by citizens
and government to the point where the
Canadian Red Cross had to tell people not
to send anymore money for this disaster.
However, as many predicted, the
money pledged by governments, includ-
ing ours, has been slow-coming. The
urgency in the situation declined almost
directly in line with the media attention.
After all, Michael Jackson was about to go
on trial. This past week the same region
has been struck by further tragedy. An
earthquake, something of a massive after-
shock of the one that caused the tsunami,
struck the island of Sumatra in Indonesia,
where two-thirds of the tsunami victims
lived. Thousands have been killed, and
once again the region has become a mag-
net for media attention, and aid has once
again started to flow in more urgently. So
this begs the question: is mass human
generosity tied directly to media attention
and body count?
A first-year sociology student could
look at some media-coverage stats and
some donation stats and tell us that there
is certainly a correlation here. However, at
the same time there has been heavy media
coverage of other events requiring foreign
aid recently. There’s the Iraq war, the
Sudanese crisis, Liberia, and Haiti before
that. While these events, with the excep-
tion of Iraq, did not receive as much
media attention, they were highly public
and received nowhere near the astronom-
ical aid amounts of the tsunami.
Many that this
occurred because the tsunami was a non-
have suggested
political event. It had no ideology, no
fanaticism, no agenda. It crossed partisan
lines. I think this is largely how it has been
perceived. I have several problems with
this. First of all, regardless of whether
human suffering is caused by a natural dis-
aster, inter-state conflict, or intra-state
conflict, it should be treated as suffering,
Innocent citizens in a war zone are just as
much victims of things they cannot con-
trol as those affected by the tsunami.
Second, if we are going to get our panties
in a bunch about solving the problems
caused by nature, maybe we should also
te-prioritize the ones we cause—such as
the exploitation of poor nations so that
we can all have cheap Ikea furniture and
wicked toys for our kids. Lastly, it should
not take mass disaster to get us off our
asses, no matter what our philosophy.
So, what’s the solution? Two words—
tsunami machine. We take it from poor
country to poor country, goon them with
some water, and the aid will be on the way
before you can say “Atlantis.” And I said I
wasn’t going to get funny.
ACTIVIST /ORGANIZER
Work For Social Justice
National Community Or-
ganization seeks politi-
cally committed people
to organize for better
schools, housing, wages
& immigrant rights.
Call: 1 800 796-6830
or e-mail:
acornrecruit@acorn.org
www.theotherpress.ca | 9
kay folks, this week I’m just
plain pissed. In past weeks, I’ve
managed to sit back and guffaw
about electoral reform, apathy, and other
such things. I can have a sense of humour
left Overs N
a Iain Reeve, OP Columnist
about these issues; I live in a country
where most of my basic needs ate never
really in danger of not being met. But
people like you and I—who are fortunate
in this respect—are in the minority.
It would be pointless and redundant
for me to list statistics that never manage
to truly express the human aspect of this
situation. This problem has already been
overburdened with statistics—it has been
separated from what this issue should
really be about—plain and simple human
compassion and sensitivity.
Here is my best way of articulating the
way I feel about the issue: this world is
beyond capable of supporting all its peo-
ple. If we could support everyone, much
April 6/2005
of the motivation for war, terrorism, and
human-rights abuses would melt away.
But we do not do this. We accept these
inequalities as a means to an end. The end
is the ability of us here in the West to live
a life most extravagant. It lets us waste
more than some eat, spend fortunes on
things we quickly dispose of and forget,
and remove ourselves from any responsi-
bility because it is “so far away.”
Recently, the world took a rather dra-
matic turn from this trend. As those of
you who were not on Mars over the holi-
days know, on Boxing Day a massive
tsunami devastated East Asia, killing close
to 300,000. The outpouring of aid money,
from our country and others, was
unprecedented. I was truly honoured to
be Canadian as even those who were by
no means wealthy emptied their pockets
to help those dying and suffering on the
other side of the world. Billions upon bil-
lions of dollars were pledged by citizens
and government to the point where the
Canadian Red Cross had to tell people not
to send anymore money for this disaster.
However, as many predicted, the
money pledged by governments, includ-
ing ours, has been slow-coming. The
urgency in the situation declined almost
directly in line with the media attention.
After all, Michael Jackson was about to go
on trial. This past week the same region
has been struck by further tragedy. An
earthquake, something of a massive after-
shock of the one that caused the tsunami,
struck the island of Sumatra in Indonesia,
where two-thirds of the tsunami victims
lived. Thousands have been killed, and
once again the region has become a mag-
net for media attention, and aid has once
again started to flow in more urgently. So
this begs the question: is mass human
generosity tied directly to media attention
and body count?
A first-year sociology student could
look at some media-coverage stats and
some donation stats and tell us that there
is certainly a correlation here. However, at
the same time there has been heavy media
coverage of other events requiring foreign
aid recently. There’s the Iraq war, the
Sudanese crisis, Liberia, and Haiti before
that. While these events, with the excep-
tion of Iraq, did not receive as much
media attention, they were highly public
and received nowhere near the astronom-
ical aid amounts of the tsunami.
Many that this
occurred because the tsunami was a non-
have suggested
political event. It had no ideology, no
fanaticism, no agenda. It crossed partisan
lines. I think this is largely how it has been
perceived. I have several problems with
this. First of all, regardless of whether
human suffering is caused by a natural dis-
aster, inter-state conflict, or intra-state
conflict, it should be treated as suffering,
Innocent citizens in a war zone are just as
much victims of things they cannot con-
trol as those affected by the tsunami.
Second, if we are going to get our panties
in a bunch about solving the problems
caused by nature, maybe we should also
te-prioritize the ones we cause—such as
the exploitation of poor nations so that
we can all have cheap Ikea furniture and
wicked toys for our kids. Lastly, it should
not take mass disaster to get us off our
asses, no matter what our philosophy.
So, what’s the solution? Two words—
tsunami machine. We take it from poor
country to poor country, goon them with
some water, and the aid will be on the way
before you can say “Atlantis.” And I said I
wasn’t going to get funny.
ACTIVIST /ORGANIZER
Work For Social Justice
National Community Or-
ganization seeks politi-
cally committed people
to organize for better
schools, housing, wages
& immigrant rights.
Call: 1 800 796-6830
or e-mail:
acornrecruit@acorn.org
www.theotherpress.ca | 9
Edited Text
inset
kay folks, this week I’m just
plain pissed. In past weeks, I’ve
managed to sit back and guffaw
about electoral reform, apathy, and other
such things. I can have a sense of humour
left Overs N
a Iain Reeve, OP Columnist
about these issues; I live in a country
where most of my basic needs ate never
really in danger of not being met. But
people like you and I—who are fortunate
in this respect—are in the minority.
It would be pointless and redundant
for me to list statistics that never manage
to truly express the human aspect of this
situation. This problem has already been
overburdened with statistics—it has been
separated from what this issue should
really be about—plain and simple human
compassion and sensitivity.
Here is my best way of articulating the
way I feel about the issue: this world is
beyond capable of supporting all its peo-
ple. If we could support everyone, much
April 6/2005
of the motivation for war, terrorism, and
human-rights abuses would melt away.
But we do not do this. We accept these
inequalities as a means to an end. The end
is the ability of us here in the West to live
a life most extravagant. It lets us waste
more than some eat, spend fortunes on
things we quickly dispose of and forget,
and remove ourselves from any responsi-
bility because it is “so far away.”
Recently, the world took a rather dra-
matic turn from this trend. As those of
you who were not on Mars over the holi-
days know, on Boxing Day a massive
tsunami devastated East Asia, killing close
to 300,000. The outpouring of aid money,
from our country and others, was
unprecedented. I was truly honoured to
be Canadian as even those who were by
no means wealthy emptied their pockets
to help those dying and suffering on the
other side of the world. Billions upon bil-
lions of dollars were pledged by citizens
and government to the point where the
Canadian Red Cross had to tell people not
to send anymore money for this disaster.
However, as many predicted, the
money pledged by governments, includ-
ing ours, has been slow-coming. The
urgency in the situation declined almost
directly in line with the media attention.
After all, Michael Jackson was about to go
on trial. This past week the same region
has been struck by further tragedy. An
earthquake, something of a massive after-
shock of the one that caused the tsunami,
struck the island of Sumatra in Indonesia,
where two-thirds of the tsunami victims
lived. Thousands have been killed, and
once again the region has become a mag-
net for media attention, and aid has once
again started to flow in more urgently. So
this begs the question: is mass human
generosity tied directly to media attention
and body count?
A first-year sociology student could
look at some media-coverage stats and
some donation stats and tell us that there
is certainly a correlation here. However, at
the same time there has been heavy media
coverage of other events requiring foreign
aid recently. There’s the Iraq war, the
Sudanese crisis, Liberia, and Haiti before
that. While these events, with the excep-
tion of Iraq, did not receive as much
media attention, they were highly public
and received nowhere near the astronom-
ical aid amounts of the tsunami.
Many that this
occurred because the tsunami was a non-
have suggested
political event. It had no ideology, no
fanaticism, no agenda. It crossed partisan
lines. I think this is largely how it has been
perceived. I have several problems with
this. First of all, regardless of whether
human suffering is caused by a natural dis-
aster, inter-state conflict, or intra-state
conflict, it should be treated as suffering,
Innocent citizens in a war zone are just as
much victims of things they cannot con-
trol as those affected by the tsunami.
Second, if we are going to get our panties
in a bunch about solving the problems
caused by nature, maybe we should also
te-prioritize the ones we cause—such as
the exploitation of poor nations so that
we can all have cheap Ikea furniture and
wicked toys for our kids. Lastly, it should
not take mass disaster to get us off our
asses, no matter what our philosophy.
So, what’s the solution? Two words—
tsunami machine. We take it from poor
country to poor country, goon them with
some water, and the aid will be on the way
before you can say “Atlantis.” And I said I
wasn’t going to get funny.
ACTIVIST /ORGANIZER
Work For Social Justice
National Community Or-
ganization seeks politi-
cally committed people
to organize for better
schools, housing, wages
& immigrant rights.
Call: 1 800 796-6830
or e-mail:
acornrecruit@acorn.org
www.theotherpress.ca | 9
kay folks, this week I’m just
plain pissed. In past weeks, I’ve
managed to sit back and guffaw
about electoral reform, apathy, and other
such things. I can have a sense of humour
left Overs N
a Iain Reeve, OP Columnist
about these issues; I live in a country
where most of my basic needs ate never
really in danger of not being met. But
people like you and I—who are fortunate
in this respect—are in the minority.
It would be pointless and redundant
for me to list statistics that never manage
to truly express the human aspect of this
situation. This problem has already been
overburdened with statistics—it has been
separated from what this issue should
really be about—plain and simple human
compassion and sensitivity.
Here is my best way of articulating the
way I feel about the issue: this world is
beyond capable of supporting all its peo-
ple. If we could support everyone, much
April 6/2005
of the motivation for war, terrorism, and
human-rights abuses would melt away.
But we do not do this. We accept these
inequalities as a means to an end. The end
is the ability of us here in the West to live
a life most extravagant. It lets us waste
more than some eat, spend fortunes on
things we quickly dispose of and forget,
and remove ourselves from any responsi-
bility because it is “so far away.”
Recently, the world took a rather dra-
matic turn from this trend. As those of
you who were not on Mars over the holi-
days know, on Boxing Day a massive
tsunami devastated East Asia, killing close
to 300,000. The outpouring of aid money,
from our country and others, was
unprecedented. I was truly honoured to
be Canadian as even those who were by
no means wealthy emptied their pockets
to help those dying and suffering on the
other side of the world. Billions upon bil-
lions of dollars were pledged by citizens
and government to the point where the
Canadian Red Cross had to tell people not
to send anymore money for this disaster.
However, as many predicted, the
money pledged by governments, includ-
ing ours, has been slow-coming. The
urgency in the situation declined almost
directly in line with the media attention.
After all, Michael Jackson was about to go
on trial. This past week the same region
has been struck by further tragedy. An
earthquake, something of a massive after-
shock of the one that caused the tsunami,
struck the island of Sumatra in Indonesia,
where two-thirds of the tsunami victims
lived. Thousands have been killed, and
once again the region has become a mag-
net for media attention, and aid has once
again started to flow in more urgently. So
this begs the question: is mass human
generosity tied directly to media attention
and body count?
A first-year sociology student could
look at some media-coverage stats and
some donation stats and tell us that there
is certainly a correlation here. However, at
the same time there has been heavy media
coverage of other events requiring foreign
aid recently. There’s the Iraq war, the
Sudanese crisis, Liberia, and Haiti before
that. While these events, with the excep-
tion of Iraq, did not receive as much
media attention, they were highly public
and received nowhere near the astronom-
ical aid amounts of the tsunami.
Many that this
occurred because the tsunami was a non-
have suggested
political event. It had no ideology, no
fanaticism, no agenda. It crossed partisan
lines. I think this is largely how it has been
perceived. I have several problems with
this. First of all, regardless of whether
human suffering is caused by a natural dis-
aster, inter-state conflict, or intra-state
conflict, it should be treated as suffering,
Innocent citizens in a war zone are just as
much victims of things they cannot con-
trol as those affected by the tsunami.
Second, if we are going to get our panties
in a bunch about solving the problems
caused by nature, maybe we should also
te-prioritize the ones we cause—such as
the exploitation of poor nations so that
we can all have cheap Ikea furniture and
wicked toys for our kids. Lastly, it should
not take mass disaster to get us off our
asses, no matter what our philosophy.
So, what’s the solution? Two words—
tsunami machine. We take it from poor
country to poor country, goon them with
some water, and the aid will be on the way
before you can say “Atlantis.” And I said I
wasn’t going to get funny.
ACTIVIST /ORGANIZER
Work For Social Justice
National Community Or-
ganization seeks politi-
cally committed people
to organize for better
schools, housing, wages
& immigrant rights.
Call: 1 800 796-6830
or e-mail:
acornrecruit@acorn.org
www.theotherpress.ca | 9
kay folks, this week I’m just
plain pissed. In past weeks, I’ve
managed to sit back and guffaw
about electoral reform, apathy, and other
such things. I can have a sense of humour
left Overs N
a Iain Reeve, OP Columnist
about these issues; I live in a country
where most of my basic needs ate never
really in danger of not being met. But
people like you and I—who are fortunate
in this respect—are in the minority.
It would be pointless and redundant
for me to list statistics that never manage
to truly express the human aspect of this
situation. This problem has already been
overburdened with statistics—it has been
separated from what this issue should
really be about—plain and simple human
compassion and sensitivity.
Here is my best way of articulating the
way I feel about the issue: this world is
beyond capable of supporting all its peo-
ple. If we could support everyone, much
April 6/2005
of the motivation for war, terrorism, and
human-rights abuses would melt away.
But we do not do this. We accept these
inequalities as a means to an end. The end
is the ability of us here in the West to live
a life most extravagant. It lets us waste
more than some eat, spend fortunes on
things we quickly dispose of and forget,
and remove ourselves from any responsi-
bility because it is “so far away.”
Recently, the world took a rather dra-
matic turn from this trend. As those of
you who were not on Mars over the holi-
days know, on Boxing Day a massive
tsunami devastated East Asia, killing close
to 300,000. The outpouring of aid money,
from our country and others, was
unprecedented. I was truly honoured to
be Canadian as even those who were by
no means wealthy emptied their pockets
to help those dying and suffering on the
other side of the world. Billions upon bil-
lions of dollars were pledged by citizens
and government to the point where the
Canadian Red Cross had to tell people not
to send anymore money for this disaster.
However, as many predicted, the
money pledged by governments, includ-
ing ours, has been slow-coming. The
urgency in the situation declined almost
directly in line with the media attention.
After all, Michael Jackson was about to go
on trial. This past week the same region
has been struck by further tragedy. An
earthquake, something of a massive after-
shock of the one that caused the tsunami,
struck the island of Sumatra in Indonesia,
where two-thirds of the tsunami victims
lived. Thousands have been killed, and
once again the region has become a mag-
net for media attention, and aid has once
again started to flow in more urgently. So
this begs the question: is mass human
generosity tied directly to media attention
and body count?
A first-year sociology student could
look at some media-coverage stats and
some donation stats and tell us that there
is certainly a correlation here. However, at
the same time there has been heavy media
coverage of other events requiring foreign
aid recently. There’s the Iraq war, the
Sudanese crisis, Liberia, and Haiti before
that. While these events, with the excep-
tion of Iraq, did not receive as much
media attention, they were highly public
and received nowhere near the astronom-
ical aid amounts of the tsunami.
Many that this
occurred because the tsunami was a non-
have suggested
political event. It had no ideology, no
fanaticism, no agenda. It crossed partisan
lines. I think this is largely how it has been
perceived. I have several problems with
this. First of all, regardless of whether
human suffering is caused by a natural dis-
aster, inter-state conflict, or intra-state
conflict, it should be treated as suffering,
Innocent citizens in a war zone are just as
much victims of things they cannot con-
trol as those affected by the tsunami.
Second, if we are going to get our panties
in a bunch about solving the problems
caused by nature, maybe we should also
te-prioritize the ones we cause—such as
the exploitation of poor nations so that
we can all have cheap Ikea furniture and
wicked toys for our kids. Lastly, it should
not take mass disaster to get us off our
asses, no matter what our philosophy.
So, what’s the solution? Two words—
tsunami machine. We take it from poor
country to poor country, goon them with
some water, and the aid will be on the way
before you can say “Atlantis.” And I said I
wasn’t going to get funny.
ACTIVIST /ORGANIZER
Work For Social Justice
National Community Or-
ganization seeks politi-
cally committed people
to organize for better
schools, housing, wages
& immigrant rights.
Call: 1 800 796-6830
or e-mail:
acornrecruit@acorn.org
www.theotherpress.ca | 9
kay folks, this week I’m just
plain pissed. In past weeks, I’ve
managed to sit back and guffaw
about electoral reform, apathy, and other
such things. I can have a sense of humour
left Overs N
a Iain Reeve, OP Columnist
about these issues; I live in a country
where most of my basic needs ate never
really in danger of not being met. But
people like you and I—who are fortunate
in this respect—are in the minority.
It would be pointless and redundant
for me to list statistics that never manage
to truly express the human aspect of this
situation. This problem has already been
overburdened with statistics—it has been
separated from what this issue should
really be about—plain and simple human
compassion and sensitivity.
Here is my best way of articulating the
way I feel about the issue: this world is
beyond capable of supporting all its peo-
ple. If we could support everyone, much
April 6/2005
of the motivation for war, terrorism, and
human-rights abuses would melt away.
But we do not do this. We accept these
inequalities as a means to an end. The end
is the ability of us here in the West to live
a life most extravagant. It lets us waste
more than some eat, spend fortunes on
things we quickly dispose of and forget,
and remove ourselves from any responsi-
bility because it is “so far away.”
Recently, the world took a rather dra-
matic turn from this trend. As those of
you who were not on Mars over the holi-
days know, on Boxing Day a massive
tsunami devastated East Asia, killing close
to 300,000. The outpouring of aid money,
from our country and others, was
unprecedented. I was truly honoured to
be Canadian as even those who were by
no means wealthy emptied their pockets
to help those dying and suffering on the
other side of the world. Billions upon bil-
lions of dollars were pledged by citizens
and government to the point where the
Canadian Red Cross had to tell people not
to send anymore money for this disaster.
However, as many predicted, the
money pledged by governments, includ-
ing ours, has been slow-coming. The
urgency in the situation declined almost
directly in line with the media attention.
After all, Michael Jackson was about to go
on trial. This past week the same region
has been struck by further tragedy. An
earthquake, something of a massive after-
shock of the one that caused the tsunami,
struck the island of Sumatra in Indonesia,
where two-thirds of the tsunami victims
lived. Thousands have been killed, and
once again the region has become a mag-
net for media attention, and aid has once
again started to flow in more urgently. So
this begs the question: is mass human
generosity tied directly to media attention
and body count?
A first-year sociology student could
look at some media-coverage stats and
some donation stats and tell us that there
is certainly a correlation here. However, at
the same time there has been heavy media
coverage of other events requiring foreign
aid recently. There’s the Iraq war, the
Sudanese crisis, Liberia, and Haiti before
that. While these events, with the excep-
tion of Iraq, did not receive as much
media attention, they were highly public
and received nowhere near the astronom-
ical aid amounts of the tsunami.
Many that this
occurred because the tsunami was a non-
have suggested
political event. It had no ideology, no
fanaticism, no agenda. It crossed partisan
lines. I think this is largely how it has been
perceived. I have several problems with
this. First of all, regardless of whether
human suffering is caused by a natural dis-
aster, inter-state conflict, or intra-state
conflict, it should be treated as suffering,
Innocent citizens in a war zone are just as
much victims of things they cannot con-
trol as those affected by the tsunami.
Second, if we are going to get our panties
in a bunch about solving the problems
caused by nature, maybe we should also
te-prioritize the ones we cause—such as
the exploitation of poor nations so that
we can all have cheap Ikea furniture and
wicked toys for our kids. Lastly, it should
not take mass disaster to get us off our
asses, no matter what our philosophy.
So, what’s the solution? Two words—
tsunami machine. We take it from poor
country to poor country, goon them with
some water, and the aid will be on the way
before you can say “Atlantis.” And I said I
wasn’t going to get funny.
ACTIVIST /ORGANIZER
Work For Social Justice
National Community Or-
ganization seeks politi-
cally committed people
to organize for better
schools, housing, wages
& immigrant rights.
Call: 1 800 796-6830
or e-mail:
acornrecruit@acorn.org
www.theotherpress.ca | 9