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It's odd how many people pay attention to a few big crises -- Ukraine, Gaza, etc -- when there are many other crises which are, by most measures, more important

It's odd how many people pay attention to a few big crises -- Ukraine, Gaza, etc -- when there are many other crises which are, by most measures, more important. For instance, current major crises are ongoing in (per Wikipedia) the DRC, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Yemen, Sudan (of course), the Sahel, Somalia, Syria, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Haiti, and South Sudan -- but most of those are rarely mentioned in the media. The Gaza war is of course a major humanitarian crisis, but it's not as important as many of the other things. All of Gaza, for instance, has around 2 million people; the whole of Palestine has a population of under 6 million. Assuming a horrific genocide with a death rate of 100 percent, the number of deaths is still less than the optimistic scenario in Sudan of 6 million excess deaths. I wouldn't be surprised if other regions (the Sahel, Yemen, Nigeria, the DRC and Ethiopia, in rough order of likelihood) also likely have expected number of deaths greater than the population of Palestine; the first two because of major crises, the last three because of crises but also because they have so many people (all over 100 million). I get why Ukraine gets more attention than Somalia (racism), but why would Gaza get more attention than, say, Yemen, Afghanistan, or Syria? All are somewhat Middle Eastern, after all, so it would be hard for racism to be as much of a factor, if at all.

Log_out_ 2y ago
the bulbbelt boiling over into permawar is scary. also a major component in sudan is arab racism against black africans and arab hate for jews. As soon as its muslim on muslim violence its okay.
insane_dreamer 2y ago
> why would Gaza get more attention than, say, Yemen, Afghanistan, or Syria? All are somewhat Middle Eastern, after all, so it would be hard for racism to be as much of a factor, if at all. The Palestinian crisis has always gotten more attention in the US because of Israel's close political relationship with the US and Jews having a strong cultural influence in the US especially since WW2. It's similar to the reason why almost no one in the US knows about the Nazi's oppression and genocide of the Roma. Also, tragically, the US has never cared about how many people die in Africa. We're so used to hearing about "hundreds of thousands dying of X" in Africa that we're completely desensitized to it, whereas one American hostage dying will be major headlines for weeks.
- pvaldes 2y ago
  I guess that in part because only a small minority of the Ethiopia citizens own phones.
  - Tuna-Fish 2y ago
    ~60% of Ethiopia's population have a cell phone contract. Given how among the poorer parts of society, only one person in a family has one, that's near 100% penetration.
    - pvaldes 2y ago
      Correct. I should have expressed myself better. They have phones but don't use it to post on internet. 80% of the population don't have internet, and of those that have it, only 5,5% use social media. This is the people that could be recording videos and sending it to the world. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-ethiopia https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-ethiopia
- jazzyjackson 2y ago
  I don't know who we is but an enormous amount of aid makes it from US to Africa so I don't know how you get by saying we don't care, it's merely not news.
  - insane_dreamer 2y ago
    The stuff that makes news is that stuff that people care about (papers report on what matters to their readers). So news coverage acts as a pretty good proxy for either how important or interesting a matter is to a population.
fractallyte 2y ago
Ukraine gets attention because it's happening in Europe, next to NATO countries, with nuclear weapons lurking in the shadows, and it happened as a result of filthy policy decisions by four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in the 1990s and now. Nothing remotely related to 'racism'. And turn this around: how much attention is Somalia, or Sudan, getting on the African continent? Do events in either of those two countries make it to national headlines?
- aguaviva 2y ago
  Partly because it's happening in Europe and the nuclear context, yes. But not simply because of that. It gets attention because the nature of the aggression is extremely clear, and highly unusual (in its brazenness and openness); and due to the clear and present threat to the (at least approximately) rule-based world order that human beings have been trying to keep in place since 1945. And it "happened" because the regime currently installed in the aggressor country chose to take the action that it did (and falsely calculated that the invasion would be a brilliant success, and face very little effective resistance). Not because of anything that went down in the 1990s. Nothing remotely related to 'racism'. On the contrary -- this decision was intimately tied to Putin's racist conception of Ukrainians as a people (and his supremacist views of his own people, or what he believes to be "his" people anyway). This is eminently clear from his own statements and numerous other indications. If you wish to explore this topic further, then I invite you to consider the writings of e.g. Terrell Jermaine Starr: https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/a40137153/terrell-jermaine-starr-ukraine-journalist-essay/ https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/a40137153/terrell-j... However you choose to ignore these indications and the openly available history of the region, and build your narratives accordingly -- that's up to you.
mikrotikker 2y ago
I think it's because the Russia vs Ukraine is more consequential for the country you live in as the outcome could cause a switch to multi polar world. As for Gaza, well it's good old fashioned anti semitism. People love to hate the Jews. It's shown in the double standards, e.g. the insane levels to which Israel has gone to reduce collateral damage that no other country has ever tried to do vs an enemy that deliberately seeks to increase collateral damage in both targeting Israeli citizens and using it's own citizens in ways that ensure their deaths.

Log_out_ 2y ago

the bulbbelt boiling over into permawar is scary. also a major component in sudan is arab racism against black africans and arab hate for jews. As soon as its muslim on muslim violence its okay.

insane_dreamer 2y ago

> why would Gaza get more attention than, say, Yemen, Afghanistan, or Syria? All are somewhat Middle Eastern, after all, so it would be hard for racism to be as much of a factor, if at all. The Palestinian crisis has always gotten more attention in the US because of Israel's close political relationship with the US and Jews having a strong cultural influence in the US especially since WW2. It's similar to the reason why almost no one in the US knows about the Nazi's oppression and genocide of the Roma. Also, tragically, the US has never cared about how many people die in Africa. We're so used to hearing about "hundreds of thousands dying of X" in Africa that we're completely desensitized to it, whereas one American hostage dying will be major headlines for weeks.

pvaldes 2y ago
I guess that in part because only a small minority of the Ethiopia citizens own phones.
- Tuna-Fish 2y ago
  ~60% of Ethiopia's population have a cell phone contract. Given how among the poorer parts of society, only one person in a family has one, that's near 100% penetration.
  - pvaldes 2y ago
    Correct. I should have expressed myself better. They have phones but don't use it to post on internet. 80% of the population don't have internet, and of those that have it, only 5,5% use social media. This is the people that could be recording videos and sending it to the world. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-ethiopia https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-ethiopia
jazzyjackson 2y ago
I don't know who we is but an enormous amount of aid makes it from US to Africa so I don't know how you get by saying we don't care, it's merely not news.
- insane_dreamer 2y ago
  The stuff that makes news is that stuff that people care about (papers report on what matters to their readers). So news coverage acts as a pretty good proxy for either how important or interesting a matter is to a population.

fractallyte 2y ago

Ukraine gets attention because it's happening in Europe, next to NATO countries, with nuclear weapons lurking in the shadows, and it happened as a result of filthy policy decisions by four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in the 1990s and now. Nothing remotely related to 'racism'. And turn this around: how much attention is Somalia, or Sudan, getting on the African continent? Do events in either of those two countries make it to national headlines?

aguaviva 2y ago
Partly because it's happening in Europe and the nuclear context, yes. But not simply because of that. It gets attention because the nature of the aggression is extremely clear, and highly unusual (in its brazenness and openness); and due to the clear and present threat to the (at least approximately) rule-based world order that human beings have been trying to keep in place since 1945. And it "happened" because the regime currently installed in the aggressor country chose to take the action that it did (and falsely calculated that the invasion would be a brilliant success, and face very little effective resistance). Not because of anything that went down in the 1990s. Nothing remotely related to 'racism'. On the contrary -- this decision was intimately tied to Putin's racist conception of Ukrainians as a people (and his supremacist views of his own people, or what he believes to be "his" people anyway). This is eminently clear from his own statements and numerous other indications. If you wish to explore this topic further, then I invite you to consider the writings of e.g. Terrell Jermaine Starr: https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/a40137153/terrell-jermaine-starr-ukraine-journalist-essay/ https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/a40137153/terrell-j... However you choose to ignore these indications and the openly available history of the region, and build your narratives accordingly -- that's up to you.

mikrotikker 2y ago

I think it's because the Russia vs Ukraine is more consequential for the country you live in as the outcome could cause a switch to multi polar world. As for Gaza, well it's good old fashioned anti semitism. People love to hate the Jews. It's shown in the double standards, e.g. the insane levels to which Israel has gone to reduce collateral damage that no other country has ever tried to do vs an enemy that deliberately seeks to increase collateral damage in both targeting Israeli citizens and using it's own citizens in ways that ensure their deaths.