By Abigail Wurster The 2017 hurricane season seems destined to be the worst hurricane season the entire world has seen in decades. Hurricane Irma has flooded many parts of Florida, and Hurricane Harvey has displaced 32,000 residents of Texas. While the media was actively reporting the damage these disasters were causing to American land, other countries were also getting hit with devastating monsoons and catastrophic flooding. While the storms in the United States were unraveling, the storms hitting India, Bangladesh and Nepal were also inflicting their share of disastrous outcomes. Nearly 1,200 citizens lost their life in these South Asian countries, and a million were made homeless. The damage in these countries barely made the mainstream western media and still remains virtually unheard of. Due to the cultural proximity of Hurricane Harvey and Irma, westerners were able to relate and feel more empathetic for those affected. Catastrophic events in the continental U.S. are more often viewed as upsetting compared to such events halfway around the world; the victims are more likely to share the same values and beliefs as those relatively nearby. South Asian natives have vastly different lives than American citizens, leaving viewers of terrible events unable to relate to them due to such cultural differences. Often, the portrayal of these disasters is also not shown in a human interest view. Newscasters do not use inclusive pronouns when referring to victims overseas, while reports of the Texan and Floridan floods used linking words like “us” or “we” to evoke more emotion. The media simply does not cover these stories due to lack of interest in international journalism, as well as the availability of information from these countries where footage or reactions may be difficult to obtain. The flooding and monsoons that have taken place in South Asia rightfully deserve more exposure and coverage. Due to the extreme displacement of others and the death toll, it should be surprising that more action is not being taken to help provide relief for these countries. Less discussion of a topic leads to less sympathy, fewer impressions on those who could give aid and limited help given to those affected. If people are not interested in foreign tragedies, simply make the tragedies more available to domestic consumers. The more available information is, the more likely it is to become mainstream. When news becomes mainstream, those that have time and resources to give become more likely to donate to relief efforts which make clean up and recovery more easily attainable for these countries. Businesses alone donated over $157 million to relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey disaster relief, while clean up for South Asian countries is only just beginning with extremely low donation rates. Photos Courtesy Of: www.instyle.com and www.bbc.com
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Elena Caputo
Hi! My name is Elena, and I'm a senior at Wilson and one of the Editors of the Editorial section. If you have any questions or ideas or if you want to write, email me at [email protected]! Olivia MonosHello! My name is Olivia and I'm a junior this year, and one of the editors of the Editorial section! I'm really excited to write for the Paw Print again this year!
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