MÈdecins Sans FrontiËres (Doctors Without Borders) recently released its list of the ten most under-reported humanitarian events of 2003. The map above shows which countries these events occurred in. Although the MSF site is temporarily down, you can read the complete details of these stories here. The top 10 stories are:
Why aren’t the media covering these stories? None of them is physically close to the West. None of them involves countries with resources of strategic importance to the West. Almost all of them are ongoing, so there is nothing ‘new’ to report each day. None of the people in these countries has resorted to terrorist attacks against the West to bring attention to our indifference to their plight. And all of them are intractible problems, and therefore issues that those of us in the West would rather not know about. |
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“none of them involves..resources of stategic importance..”Do you have a cell phone? Do you know that the heavy metals used in cell phone batteries and the electronic guts of many other technologies come from places like the Congo? West and Central Africa have many strategic resources of importance to the US and the rest of the west. The entire conflict in the Congo is a result of different factions fighting over control of these valuable metals, as well as, of course, the gem trade, and further south, coffee and cocoa beans. The vast majority of Africa’s natural resource wealth serves some purpose in the west, just as it did in colonial times.
According to a recent Industry Canada study, “A Regional Perspective on the Canada-U.S. Standard of Living comparison,” standards of living in Canadian provinces are well behind those of U.S. states, based on data collected from 1992 to 1997. For Canadians who have patted themselves on the back for a perceived higher-than-average standard of living than in the U.S., these findings come as a shock. In fact, only seven states, recorded standards of living below the Canadian average. In one third of U.S. states, the standard of living is more than 25 % higher than the Canadian average, according to the report, and it is more than 50 % higher in Delaware, Alaska, Connecticut and Wyoming. In Canada, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland all rank below Mississippi, the state with the lowest standard of living. Although employment levels have reached all-time highs in many Canadian communities, cooling economies, rising health care costs and skill shortages may cause standards to drop further. Standard of living and quality of housing are so closely linked, Canadians may find their home life under further attack in the coming decades. The best Canadian performer, Alberta, ranked 18th among the combined 50 states and 10 provinces, while Ontario
Whilst it may not quite match Time or Newsweek for circulation or availability, the monthly mag New Internationalist provides an excellent window onto that alternative world within which these events take place.
Susan: Point taken. I would still argue that if the materials that are obtained from Africa and Latin America and Korea were as strategically critical as Middle East oil is, we in the West would be much more interested in getting these countries into a ‘stable’ state to protect our sources of supply.Anonymous ‘ERC@yahoo.com‘: Excuse me, but what exactly has this to do with the subject of my post? Quite aside from the fact that GDP is a completely discredited measure of standard of living or quality of life (I grew up in Manitoba and have visited Mississippi and I can tell you there is absolutely no comparison). As for productivity, the largest factors in the productivity differences between states and provinces of North America are (1) the average work week and (2) the proportion of families where both parents work. There are some people in this world, believe it or not, who think having both spouses work long hard hours for low wages isn’t nirvana. But then I suspect you’re a Republican.
Dick: Thanks. They have an interesting website, too.
As Elmer Fudd said, “Be vewwy vewwy careful when you talk about standard of living comparisons.” (I’m sure he said that.)Comparing the Great Intangible (AKA Canada) with other countries (e.g. USA) is fraught with problems. The fact Canadians don’t live at Wal-Mart and dine at McDonald’s does not mean they have a (relatively) lower standard of living. Maybe some (many?) Canadians rate libraries higher than Wal-Marts. Maybe some rate home cooking higher than fast food or take out. Well, about take out I have to confess to the attraction of a certain local Chinese take-out that is just so spectacular ……………..
This is the second blog giving me vertigo this weekend. Are you copying that Science guy?
has anyone seen Tibet on a world map recently ???
This is a great post … it is important to keep these issues in mind. I checked out the website for The New Internationalist and was so impressed I subscribed. I had not heard of this magazine before so it’s a welcome discovery. I believe it is important for us to to research issues and your website is part of my daily research – thanks for all the information you generously share.