31/10/2012

So It Rained And It Blew In New York – Tell That To The People Of Bangladesh. That’s A Real Storm Story

Jan Weatherhead writes from New York: When the storm blew like big storms blow, no one quite knew how many would not make it.
New York hurricane Sandy causes flooding
The wind spiralled like a banshee seeking death wishes and the tidal wave hit four metres above sea level and river bank. Come the morning maybe 100 or more were dead. Some 600,000 were homeless and ruined.


These guys in Bangladesh are used to this sort of thing and anyway, that’s the cut of the cards: you’re born in Bangladesh and life craps on you once in a while. I mean, who in hell knows the name of the President or whatever they have in that place who gets on the news stations and appeals for help.
And when the news networks give Sandy the make over we know that it’s the biggest natural disaster ever. And when a political pointy head goes on and on about the chances of President Obama getting back into the White House, because he’s supposedly a natural leader who can tell the wind and the rain to stop, you know it’s just damned right to hold the front pages and feature grim faces that can’t make the subway work for a couple of days.
Bangladesh - the real thing
Now we’re truly sorry about the 30 or so people who died as a result of hurricane Sandy, the 100 or so who died in the Bangladesh weather thing.

Sorry that La Guardia airport is closed for a couple of days, We’re sorry that when you’re poor and hungry, losing your home or crops to floods can mean the beginning of the end, sorry that the news channels had to devote hours of screen time and millions of dollars to covering a not-many-dead weather story, sorry that the make-up artists, the auto-cuties and the item producers could not find time to cover a many-dead weather story in the world’s poorest country.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (Photo credit: erjkprunczýk)
A post made late last night over on Stirring Trouble Internationally - A humorous take on news and current affairs about being sorry about the hurricane Sandy and natural disasters in Bangladesh. [Oct 2012, STi]