I have heard NPR call the very natural disaster in China, 'China's 9/11". That is irresponsible. 9/11 was a terrorist attack. It was planned, possibly preventable, and very foreseeable. It also killed 3000 people, not 30,000 people.
If what you mean, dear NPR, is that it has given rise to feelings of national unity and solidarity, then say that. But don't continue sending the meta-message that terrorist attacks and natural disasters are on the same footing.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Stop it NPR!
Posted by USWest at 5:20 PM
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5 comments:
I think 911 has become like perfect storm and -gate, part of the vernacular. But I agree, it would have been better to call it their Katrina.
Oh, let's face it. This quake is big enough to be it's own thing. I don't think we've had anything that comes close to this level of catastrophe since the San Francisco earthquake or the Chicago fire.
Quite so. It's their Katrina in the sense that it's a big natural disaster, but (a) theirs is bigger and (b) they're handling it, while our gov't mishandled it. A bigger challenge that they're handling better. Diminishing it by comparing it to recent US events seems like an inaccurate attempt to make it resonate with Americans.
Because we won't care unless we associate it with some suffering we're identified with.
(geek note: even the Chicago fire had only hundreds of fatalities.)
I thought this was a reference to the Chinese calendar. But, after some research, it turns out that China's 9/11 is actually the ninth of November.
Reading Glenn Greenwald today, another thought occurred to me:
It is, according to most metrics I can come up with, more accurate to compare the Sichuan earthquake's effect on China with the American invasion's effect on Iraq than with the WTC terrorist attack on the US.
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