Disaster strikes. What does America do? We send money and provisions, and media covers the event in minutes. Yet, the coverage seems to stop as quickly as it began.
After a few months, all concern ceases to exist and America never hears, speaks or talks of said disaster again. Unless, of course, a celebrity donates an insanely large sum of money and cares about the cause.
Take for example the earthquake in Haiti. This natural disaster occurred 14 months ago on Jan. 12, 2010. What knowledge do Americans seem to have in regards to the relief effort? Nothing, which gives the impression that Haiti is not experiencing suffering or hardship due to the earthquake and that statement could not be any more invalid.
I thought I’d look into just this topic since our news sources don’t speak much about it. According to “Time Magazine,” 1.5 million Haitians are still homeless and only five percent of the 22 million cubic yards of heavy debris from the earthquake has been removed. In the article, one Haitian said, “For us, every morning when we wake up and see this, it’s still January 12, 2010.”
Without looking this information up, I would have never known just how bad Haiti still has it. Haitians continue to suffer but no one knows about it.
No one knows that America has given $100 million so far to Haiti but they have promised to give $1.15 billion. According to “Time Magazine,” the UK has given $33 million and they are the only country to come close to what America has given. It’s great that America has given so much, but it should be advertised and promoted more. People would love to hear the good news about America’s disaster relief.
Japan is another example. When I first looked on Google, I typed in “what did America do for the Japan earthquake?” I found three stories about how we tried to cancel American flights to Japan and how we tried to find our citizens in Japan. I understand that the government has to look out for its people, but why wasn’t there at least one story about our efforts for the Japanese people?
I have one great problem with hearing about the Japan situation on the news. I don’t believe we would be hearing about the situation in Japan had the amount of nuclear radiation not increased and posed a risk to America.
We hear about Japan due to self-interests, not the severity of disaster. We should help more than just those who help us.
America needs to report about these disasters beyond the initial shock. Let’s face it: People are still suffering and Americans need to know.
Gabbrielle Joseph is a Reporter for “The Patriot” and jcpatriot.com.