January 15, 2010

Thank God For Earthquakes

The men in suits (or more likely men in studiously casual open-necked shirts) who run the news channels must be delighted that God moves in mysterious ways and decided Haiti could do with an earthquake. They now have something else to endlessly talk about.

Day after day, week after week we have seen intrepid reporters sent out to all corners of the UK to tell us that snow is cold, ice is slippery and ungritted roads make driving just a tad tricky. It appears relentlessly newsworthy that it is just as chilly somewhere else as it is where you are. And no matter how bad the travelling conditions, or how under pressure the emergency services are – the 24hour news hound gets through to bring you their breathless news story.

Then came that earthquake in Haiti and snow didn’t seem quite so miserable any more. Drop everything and get to Haiti seemed to be the clarion call.

There can be few things as appalling as living in a dirt-poor country and falling victim to a disaster – natural or man-made. For after disaster comes wave after wave of news reporters and camera crews.

Imagine how dreadful this must be. Your house is destroyed, your loved ones killed or maimed, your livelihood destroyed. All put on television to shock and entertain us. And all these news hounds get in the way of the relief effort. They take up space on planes getting there. They take up on-site transport that is thin on the ground. The feed themselves and their media frenzy in hotels while other go short. And when you go short in a place like Haiti, I suspect you are going very short indeed.

Why is it that when a country’s infrastructure is destroyed in a matter of minutes that they get instant news coverage rather than rapid relief? What is wrong with our world that 24 hour news coverage is more important than actually helping people? And how callous do you have to be to push your camera into the face of such despair – and then go back for dinner on expenses?