The Role of the Media

Years after natural disasters, the need for aid still lingers. Hurricane Katrina victims and hurricane Ike victims are still in need of care and shelter. Aid quickly becomes a small priority when the terrible natural disaster loses its drama and floats its way out of the media. This is a problem.

This recent article from the BBC, reports that hundreds of thousands of people in Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta (east of India) still need assistance- a year after the deadly cyclone. Cyclone Nargis killed about 140,000 people in 2008 and more than 2 million people were left homeless. The cyclone that flew across the fields of Burma was a disaster comparable to the Asian tsunami.

“Yet the amounts of aid being requested are just a fraction of what is being
spent on countries like Indonesia after the tsunami- and not much is forthcoming
yet.”

The UN have made an appeal of $ 700 million for reconstruction in February, however so far they have received less than $100 million.

The article pin points the problem in lack of public awareness of the crisis. There are actually around 60 aid agencies at work in Burma, even a year after the disaster, and yet we do not hear about it. This problem is rooted in the fact that most foreign journalists have been banned from reporting in Burma. Another problem is that the public are skeptical of where there money is going, because of Burma’s military government who are increasingly suspicious of foreign involvement in their country. Therefore, the public are worried that their money will be going into the wrong hands. This is despite the fact that the director of STC (save the children) has assured that he is absolutely confident that aid will not be sent into the hands of the military government.

Many cyclone victims in Burma are still living in poorly constructed shelters that are suffering from salt contamination. Additionally, the reconstruction project in Burma has barely begun.

Another situation that has been ignored and only thrust into the spotlight due to a person in government is the humanitarian situation in Haiti. One of the western hemisphere’s poorest nations is in dire need of aid after a year of hurricanes and food riots. Despite its apparently relatively successful economy, there is a hugely uneven distribution of wealth in Haiti and 70 percent on the population are unemployed.

Hilary Clinton wants to pledge $57 million towards Haiti, to help it build roads, create jobs, help with food shortages, and provide relief for recent hurricanes.

An additional country that has been in the news recently due to its need for aid is Somalia. Up to 3 million people in Somalia (half the population) are in need of food aid.

“They don’t have access to basic services, they don’t have access to clean
water. They are in need of emergency assistance that the government cannot
provide.”

Recent lack of aid has been mainly due to the fact that aid workers have been killed, as some Muslim regions of the country are not willing to work with aid agencies.