rm | Beslan

I was asked to write about Beslan in response to a recent post, and regardless of my ability or inclination to do so, it seems rude of me not to acknowledge that.

Because most of the media analysis work I do at the day job involves a slight delay, I've only read about Beslan to the degree that I've read the news on my own time (which is something I do much less than I used to, for obvious reasons). That said, it went from being a hostage situation, to a NYTimes headline that seemed to indicate there were maybe a dozen deaths and it was all going to be okay to the news I read after I got home from VF last night, which is that over 200 have died.

It is, of course, incomprehensible, as it is not the sort of event that happens here, although I am somewhat put in mind of all the airline hijackings of my childhood, and the spector of that particular fear, because if you had an American passport, that would kill you.

What the request does put me in mind of though, and what I can write about to great effect and with some vague relevance is the equation of fatalities and regions that equal headlines.

Certainly, many people will remember this exchange from West Wing:
Jed: "Why is a Kudanese life worth less to me than an American life?"
Will: "I don't know, sir, but it is."

And that's a grim truth in both news and politics, at least here in the US. CJR runs numbers on it sometimes, but I've not seen any in years. But the basic premise is that it takes exponentially more deaths in a place like South America or Africa for Americans to care what is happening there. The numbers also differ across Europe, but more minimally, and the graph of them shows an obvious relationship to language, race and money, with aberation coming from things the news likes -- such as kids, animals, scary diseases and freakish accidents.

At any rate, I may well write about Beslan in the coming days, when I've a better understanding of the political forces surrounding the specific way the events unfolded (why are the Russians so inept in hostage situations? Although doesn't dealing with these situations well guarantee loss of life because one must be cold?).

Those wishing to donate to survivors in Beslan should go here: http://www.moscowhelp.org/
Link courtesy of