This minute now I stopped my reading of a fantastic in-depth coverage in the December 2005 National Geographic to write this (there's so much more in print mag - I'm buying several copies).
In National Geo's Hope in Hell series (part one is on Katrina) part two is entitled, "When the World Forgets Who Comes to Help". One year prior to the exact date of the tsunami an earthquake jolted Bam, Iran on December 26, 2003:
"Overall, an estimated 1,800 foreign aid workers from 44 countries came to Bam, most during the first month of the emergency phase." But late last May when photographer John Stanmeyer arrived, "barely 17 million dollars [of 131 million pledged] had actually arrived. Furthermore, few international NGOs remained at work in Bam." - "The Earthquake", Hope in Hell series, National Geographic, Dec 2005
Rebuilding Aceh, Indonesia and other devasted areas could take a decade, the article states. "Some 30,000 children must hide every night from brutal insurgents in a two-decade-old conflict in northern Uganda. One thing is certain: The media will move on to the next crisis. Then how far does humanitarian aid reach?"
The head of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs compares global aid - "media coverage of an event may loosen public purse strings" - to winning a lottery. For all 30-odd crisis-ridden societies around the world, "one or two will win - if they're lucky," he says.
What's intriguing about the series is the echoing chorus of "the media" this and "the media" that. As if it all rests on the media gods to grant us attention.
"I was imagining FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) coming up in military trucks for survivors," Donnelly said. "I was expecting people to pick us up." - "Katrina: A Lifetime Ago", Greenville, Mich. The Daily News - btw, this story rocks
I don't get this THEY business. One reason I'm p-e-r-s-o-n-ally returning to the tsunami-struck countries: We are the media.
You want to see a miracle son --
be the miracle. - God (the character in film Bruce Almighty, although I think He'd ditto that;-))
BONUS: First person bloggy "Field Notes" from the Hope in Hell authors:
"As I walked through Banda Aceh, I came across a makeshift school that had been set up to replace one of those destroyed. Small groups of children were huddled on the floor around their books. There were no chairs or tables, but the children were learning. As I gazed at them thinking of my own little boy and girl, one of them—a girl no more than ten years old—looked up. I have no idea what her story was, whether she had lost part or all of her family, but she suddenly gave me the broadest smile. I found myself winking back at her. She immediately nudged her friend, and they both grinned at me. I saw everything in those smiles, notably the hope for a new future. For me, that said it all."
tags social media tsunami citizen journalism journalism blogging disaster relief katrina fundraising
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