Curious contrasts....

There have been two devastating storms happening in the last week. One in the US and another - a typhoon over Taiwan/China. The contrasts in level of media coverage and also content relating to the storms are interesting and can be seen here and here.

What's interesting to me is the level of coverage each event attracted. Relatively speaking despite impacting on approximately 600,000 people the Chinese event attracted little coverage. The nature of the state response in each case can also be subject to debate at many levels. It is clear that the magnitude of the storms can not be compared. None the less the contrast is quite revealing and food for contemplation.

To put the tragedy in the US into further perspective is this letter to the editor published today in the Sydney Morning Herald by Zoë Trypas...

Thirty years ago after Cyclone Tracy, within 36 hours, including Christmas Day, Australia had a flotilla of planes flying aid and equipment in and people out of Darwin. Almost 100,000 people were evacuated to other capital cities within hours and days, not weeks. The evacuation of Darwin was finished in four days, not started. And in contrast to Katrina, the severity of Tracy was largely unexpected.


In Louisiana there are 20,000 people without food, water, and sanitation, locked in a sports stadium. What a pathetic effort.