I am beginning to think I have read a few too many books on human decision making and emotion (particularly fear and empathy and randomness). Understanding how other people are likely to react to things largely prevents me from reacting the same way, because I can only see it as silly.
The reason I mention this is because of the Pike River Disaster. And it is a disaster. 29 people were trapped, and are now almost certainly dead. It is a tragedy - which sadly makes it the media's wet dream. But they are an ancillary problem, and not what I am talking about here.
Do not for one second get me wrong. When I first heard about Pike River, my throat caught, and my heart went out to the men and their families. Despite allegations to the contrary, I do feel human emotion. I was sad for a while. What sobered me up was the fact that I wouldn't STOP hearing about this event for at least a month, probably more.
It is the nature of empathy. When a tragedy occurs, we attach a lot of weight to it. It is the way we are hard wired. I haven't studied this in depth, so I won't get technical with it - most everyone knows this from experience.
Allow me to provide a bit of perspective.
-According to the NZTA, in the past twelve months 381 people have died in car accidents. That 32 per month, or roughly 1 per day. (http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/road-deaths/toll.html)
-On a single day, Oct 31 2010, there were 47 recorded civilian deaths in Iraq that were caused by violence. The average is 11.6 per day. This does not include unrecorded casualties, which are presumed to be significantly higher. (http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/)
-According to the Ministry of Health, smoking kills approximately 5000 people per year in New Zealand. That is around 14 per day.
And the list goes on and on - people dying due to tragic, and often preventable causes. It is all sad. Why do we not care?
Because those are statistics. Those people are just as real as the Pike River miners, but we do not see them. We do not see pictures of them. We feel no connection to them. Nobody cares about statistics.
I care about statistics. Those facts, and the rest, rend me just as much as Pike River does.
Heck, Pike River is a statistic. In 2009, 2631 chinese miners died in coal mines. That is a Pike River-size event every week. (http://frankwarner.typepad.com/free_frank_warner/2006/01/us_coal_mining_.html)
Pike River is a very sad event. 29 men were embarked in a dangerous profession to provide a vital material to our economy, and died as a result. But excuse me if I do not observe minutes of silence, or light candles, or join Pike River groups on facebook.
Call me a heartless bastard, if you like. You won't be the first, and you probably won't be the last. I disagree. I just think I see the bigger picture. Pike River is a very small piece in a very large, very sad, puzzle.
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I completely agree with you here- well said.
ReplyDeleteYOU HEARTLESS BASTARD
ReplyDelete*piece
The reason you are hearing about the Pike River incident here is because it happened here.
ReplyDeleteThe reason you are hearing about the Pike River incident now is because the men were only declared dead two days ago - and they are still investigating the causes.
The reason it has had so much coverage is because it's _29_ people dead, all due to ONE incident, all (or most at least) living in ONE area. That's 29 less beds that will be filled in one town, because of one moment. You're hearing about it because of the concentration of the tragedy.
Don't get me wrong, refusing to partake in memorial for the dead men is fine by me - you didn't know them, you never will, and sparing 10 minutes of your time to pretend that you're thinking of these people you didn't know won't make a whack of difference - but I just don't think you quite understand why this is getting as much attention as it is.
On the contrary Anonymous, I am perfectly aware of all of those reasons. As I stated the first paragraph, I read far too much to be unaware of the reasons.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't mean I have to like it.
I agree with you here Creature, there are far too many people who die that don't get noticed, and hearing about this event as much i have makes the tragedy seem more redundant.. If the news crews are having THAT much difficulty trying to fill the news space which is a void in NZ, they could report daily death tolls. You know, the ones we never hear about, maybe a daily obituary.
ReplyDeleteThe idea is solid, but it will never happen. News is an entertainment industry, and nobody is entertained by statistics, particularly statistics about dead people.
ReplyDeleteBut your first point I agree with wholly. The more I hear about Pike River, the more it loses any sense of importance to me.