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December 29, 2004

Regarding our own pain

Watching the news coverage of the tsunami catastrophe I recalled some passages of Susan Sontag's book "Regarding the pain of others". And now I find she passed away tonight...

great-wave-at-kanagawa.jpg
The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, Hokusai

I haven't seen any pictures of tourist's corpses. I have seen a lot of dead asian people, a lot of dead babies carried in despair by their mothers. I have seen full coverages of the damages that luxury hotels suffered. I have seen images of tourists in clean and modern hospitals, getting free food at the aiports.

There was a british couple being interviewed that said the most amazing sentence, between sobs: "The water filled our bangalow...we lost everything we had".

I have a feeling - and hopefuly I'm terribly wrong - that the news have more impact when westerners are affected. Is it that we actually are more compassionate when we think "that ACTUALLY could have been me"? It's easier to identify ourselves with the people killed in the 9/11 attack. It's easier to identify ourselves with the tourists in exotic resorts.

I'm sure that the story of the german kid who was reunited with his mother is much more appealing than the thousands of similar stories that I hope happened to the inhabitants of the affected countries.

I'm wondering what happened to the asian tourists. Maybe I have seen their corpses after all. I suppose a blonde head is easier to spot in the middle of the chaos...

"Staying within the bounds of good taste was the primary reason given for not showing any of the horrific pictures of the dead taken at the site of the World Trade Center(...).The more remote or exotic the place, the more likely we are to have full frontal views of the dead and dying.(...) The exhibition in photographs of cruelties inflicted on those with darker complexions in exotic countries continues this offering, oblivious to the considerations that deter such displays of our own vitims of violence; for the other, even when not an enemy, is regarded as only someone to be seen, not someone (like us) who also sees." Susan Sontag, Regarding the pain of others.

I'm going to shake off the cynicism now.

Posted by claudia

Comments

Um comentário premente, sem dúvida...

Posted by Paulo Ribeiro at December 29, 2004 03:24 PM

Yeah, unfortunately I think what you say is true. People tend to pay much more importance to things that are familiar to them. For example, how many people who don't have friends or family in Iraq can relate to all the news about people dying there on a daily basis? I think that it's natural to filter out things that you think has little relevance, otherwise you'd be swamped by emotion about almost anything. I'm not saying that it's the perfect solution or indeed the moral thing to do, though. Yes, we'd live in a better world if we cared about what happens to everyone, especially the locals who are most affected by all this. On the brighter side, I was hearing on the news how the locals helped some of tourists to survived, and in return some of the tourists stayed behind to help with the rescue effort. I think that's great. Oh... how were you holidays, by the way? Hope you had a good time! :)

Posted by alkam at December 29, 2004 10:49 PM

O oCIDENTE está a ruir.......

Posted by C at December 31, 2004 04:51 PM