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We’re thinking of you, Haiti
I have to tell you, it was tempting. It was tempting to write another article on Donald Trump for this week’s column – after all, he’s been repulsive towards women. I was tempted to write an article on Kim Kardashian and all of the media coverage on her following the armed robbery. But that temptation weighed up against what my heart truly told me to write means nothing. It also helped that my head was telling me the same thing.
You’d be forgiven if you didn’t know Haiti was hit by Hurricane Matthew last week. After all, the media hardly covered it. Instead, Good Morning Britain had a reporter waiting in Florida for the hurricane to hit, presumably because it was easier for them. Who knows why.
There have been no so-called ‘frames’ on Facebook for the disaster that claimed the lives of at least eight hundred and seventy seven innocent people. The frames I’m talking about appear on a profile picture in support of a travesty like the Paris attacks in November, the Orlando shooting and Stand Up for Cancer. Haiti hasn’t been supported online in the same way as pretty much all western tragedies in the past year or so. Maybe Mark Zuckerberg missed the memo too.
My main gripe with the media’s (lack of) coverage of the hurricane in Haiti is because they have failed to express the true horror of the disaster. Haiti was hit by an earthquake in 2010 which killed thousands and resulted in the outbreak of fatal diseases like cholera. This is something that the United Nations have forecast will happen again. And the people of Haiti aren’t expecting much help from their government, either, which only adds to the tragedy. But the media glosses over it and talks about the same hurricane hitting Florida – an area far more developed and prepared than Haiti both before and after the hurricane.
Haiti and its people have been forgotten about by the western world. Their plight is something that is disproportionately reported because an armed robbery in Paris that killed nobody is apparently more important.
News flash: it’s not.
So, this week’s column is for the people of Haiti. I’m with you, we’re with you and we won’t forget your suffering. You are in our thoughts.