Tsunami, a sad irony

I like the rest of the world have sat over the last few days listening to news reports concerning the disaster that is unfolding in Asia. For us in the Western world and certainly for me, the sheer scale and numbers involved is barely conceivable. Whole villages and families wiped out in a few minutes, thus far over 20000 people have lost their lives and millions have been rendered homeless, losing everything they posses in the world. It is with a tragic certainty that we know these figures will only rise in the coming days.

As I have listened and watched these reports with a heavy heart and disbelief I have been struck strongly by a strange and perhaps sad irony in the human condition and psyche.

How many of us, myself included, have spent hours over the holiday season in pursuit of 'entertainment' in the form of televised drama, be it the durge that is soap opera or man made horrors committed to DVD and video? We tune into the likes of Coronation Street, Eastenders and Emmerdale and lap up the small disasters and traumas that writers have penned for us. We sit on the edge of our seats in anticipation to enjoy films such as The day after tomorrow, Twister and Titanic and we follow avidly the likes of Casualty as it's inhabitants suffer one disaster and death after another.

I am no different in this, I watch these 'gems', nay, even look forward to some of them and yet I am struck again as we watch a true horror unfold for millions in Asia, of how odd, we as a species can be. On one hand we feel genuine sympathy and horror for the individuals and countries concerned, we mobilise aid in various forms and for those with a faith (and maybe even those without) pray for these poor souls whilst on the other hand we choosing to attempt to experience as closely as possible via film and television these very types of events for entertainment!

Of course we know as rational beings that what is committed to film is 'only a film' it is not real, we can differentiate and set one part of our mind aside for the strange pleasure derived from the perceived excitement, whilst feeling genuine sadness for the reality of true human suffering but I wonder, how many of us would still find such box office hits entertainment had we been unfortunate enough to be in Asia this week?

Add to that irony for one moment another, the ever present issue of economics. Here we have a world, that with barely a thought will spend millions of whatever currency in the making of a box office hit depicting disaster on a massive scale for our 'enjoyment'. Conversely, the same world considered just last year, that the millions required to set up an early warning sysytem in the Indian Ocean, to warn the population of a forthcoming natural disaster, was not economically viable......somewhere we have got it very wrong.