The press coverage of disaster and our innate determination to reach the end of humanity

Do you know one of the things that makes me sick to my stomach - our lack of coverage of developing countries. There is only ever one narrative to hit our screens - of everyday suffering; but when something pivotal happens - an earthquake, a flood, a year without rain - that doesn't even make the cut.

The way that we dismiss disasters that do not happen in the West is unfortunately inevitable. It didn't surprise me that disasters were happening and I had absolutely no idea. 

This summer alone - the floods in South Asia, the famine in East Africa, the mud slides in Sierra Leone; yet the press seem fixated on the floods in Texas.

I am not saying the floods in Texas are not horrendous, but I believe that all human life is sacrilegious. 44 people have died at the hands of Hurricane Harvey. That is 44 people who had families, lives, dreams and desires. Yes that is horrendous but sometimes we need to put it into perspective. 

The death toll of the South Asia floods currently stands at 1400; over 30 times that of Texas. I am not saying that we should just judge disasters by the death toll, but it does raise a question - how has this disaster gone uncovered? 

Sierra Leone raised a similar question only a month ago, with 1000 dead but little coverage in the world press. 

Maybe East Africa should not even be raised when Action Aid has said that more than 16 million people are at the brink of starvation; or their reminder that 250,000 people died in just one famine in Somalia in 2010. 

Is it that we think that Western lives should be more valued, or that our press judges them closer to home? 

If we look at the facts - in a post-fact world - Texas is 4900 miles away from London, while Somalia is 4100 miles away. So actually we are closer to 16 million people starving than the Texas floods. Maybe it is the closer culture - but my experience of Africa seems as centred around Apple and Nike as the UK. Maybe it is just the inherent racism that seems to run through our society - infecting us like a disease. 

So I have a question - should we let these atrocities go unnoticed? If we have learnt anything in the past few decades, the past few years even, the press seems to dictate the will of the people, and in turn the actions of our politicians. 

Our prime example could be Brexit; or maybe Diana vs Charles could raise a few eyebrows. If we continue to let the press dictate the make up of our own personalities, our own decisions, our own view of the world - where are we actually going to end up?

A society which would take wealth over substance?; materialism over compassion?; beauty over brains?; drama over duty?; fiction over fact? Or are we already in this new version of the world with our obsession of Kardashians, Love Island's collaboration with companies using cheap labour. increasing inequality? Have we already allowed our humanity to be eroded?

If we changed the world - if we actually looked at the each life as having the same worth. If our press covered these disasters with equal ferocity, would we view International Development differently?; would Racism cease to be a thing?; would Climate Change become more of an issue?

We saw earlier this year a rampage of terrorism attacks. Manchester and London to name just a few. But utilising fact again the four terrorism attacks which killed more than 100 people in 2017 occurred in Syria, Afghanistan and Libya. I barely knew these existed yet pride myself on being well-read. 

Should we even mention the atrocities the UK could actually be responsible for? Afghanistan - in tatters, Iraq - a quest for oil, Yemen - UK-supplied weapons at the hands of Saudi Arabia, Syria - destroyed by sponsorship by the giants of the West. 

How does the press cover these issues? Barely. 

Until we actually acknowledge for some unbeknown reason that in our society we care so little for some countries in the world that thousands dying isn't worth printing, we will never actually make a difference. 

If we can so easily ignore catastrophies in a world, how will our government feel inclined to actually help them? If we dismiss a country by its position or history, how will we ever view it as anything other than a developing country? If we allow some peoples lives to matter more than others, how will we ever strive for world peace? 

Maybe this big question should be - if we can ignore another human's suffering, to the point our press is so blase in covering it, have we lost the essence of our humanity?  

Every human in this world strives for love, health and happiness. Everyone can feel pain, grief and loneliness. We are all human and until we can truly believe and understand that - our press and our politicians will do little to support it. In my view, until we can hold every human life in equal value, until we demand our press does the same, until we can get over this innate arrogance, self-obsession and selfishness, we will continue to go along this path of self-destruction to the end of humanity. That is not a goal we should be aiming for. 

The people in our moments. The moments in our lives.

Life is made up of moments. Moments we laugh, cry, yawn, sleep and love. Moments we hate, envy, eat, pity and dream. Every moment of our life makes up the person we are at the end of it. When those lights finally go out you don’t know which memory will come to your mind. Will it be that boy you loved at the sweet age of 22? Will it be that child you so desperately wanted through years of IVF? Will it be that friend you had but lost contact with? Or will be a stranger: a nurse? A refugee you saw on the TV? A child you met on your travels? We don’t know, we will never know. That is the beauty of it.

Deaths and mourning bring out on reflection, not on only the life that has passed but our own. The life that we are still living. The moments that make it up.

I have been thinking about the people who make up those moments. I remember spending a night in a hostel in Manchester. I met a group of guys who were there to watch the match and they took pity on the girl there to do her dissertation research. I remember going to a bar, going clubbing and having a fantastic evening. But I don’t remember them and that makes me quite sad. For all the moments that made up that evening, it was them who made them. Total strangers who decided to extend a hand of kindness to a girl working away on a laptop in the common room on a Friday night. Yet my memory decided to put them out of my mind and replace them with people they deemed more important. What is more important than kindness? Maybe love.

I remember the few people that I have truly loved in my life. I remember the moments they made me smile, the moments of passion and the many, many moments I cried. I cried over the loss of them, the loss of making more of those moments and the loss of that time. But what about the people we only love for a moment. The people we kiss in a bar when we are 18 and it is the done thing to do. The people you dance with and swap numbers but never follow up. The people you spend a cold, lonely evening messaging on tinder but never meet up. For those moments they were the centre of our universe, so where are they now? What could they have been? Who could they have been?

Whenever anyone makes up a moment in our life, they enter the pool of candidates for the last person we remember. While I hope that will be the soul-mate sitting by my bedside, or the grandchild holding my hand, or my Mother who has always been there; it could be that boy I loved at 22? That child I held in my arms in Uganda? That person who taught me the true meaning of life without even sharing a name. We never know, so maybe no one should stay a stranger, or drift into becoming an acquaintance, what would the world be if everyone became a friend?