I have never written a diary before, and this is not a long one, but I just have to rant...
I am ashamed of our self-centered, self-important, self-righteous nation.
I rarely watch the morning news anymore, finding the talking heads to be inane and infuriating. However, I turned it on this morning, looking for up-to-date information on the train bombings in India. As the Today Show opened, the leader line went something like this:
"Security is heightened in major American cities this morning following the bombings in the financial district of Mumbai."
Not "India deals with the tragic aftermath of the brutal, coordinated bombings of yesterday" Not "A nation grieves after nearly 200 are killed and over 700 are wounded in train bombings".
No, it's all about America.
Why is it that we are unable to process events like this without putting it through the "American" filter? This type of ego-centrism in a person would be a sign of a personality disorder.
Let's look a little further at the coverage and we will find some insult to add to injury here. You would expect that a media organization as large and as wealthy as NBC could manage to put a reporter on the ground in India to provide the latest. After all, this is the network that perfected the art of the "How do you feel" question put to victims/survivors immediately following some horrific experience. But no, they went to a reporter on the ground in London. London? Well, of course (smacks forehead with hand). The next most pressing question after how America is responding to the tragedy is how Britain is responding to the tragedy. After all, they went through a similar ordeal a year ago. Now, I do not in any way intend to trivialize what took place in London, and it is certainly appropriate to mark the occasion. But it should have been a sidebar story to current events.
According to the U.S. census from 2000, there were more than 1,000,000 people born in India living in the United States. This does not include those of Indian descent. By contrast, the same census reported that there were less than 700,000 people born in the U.K. living in the United States. You would think that with those demographics, we might show a more respectful and sympathetic response to what they are dealing with. Could it possibly be that the British are predominantly Caucasian, Christian and English-speaking, while the Indians are predominantly brown-skinned, non-Christian and speak (a variety) of foreign languages?
I am ashamed and embarrassed by my country's reaction, and I offer my sympathy to all who have lost family members and suffered injury in this attack.