Brain Fertilizer

It was Wolf Blitzer’s Report on CNN on 5 Jan.
He was talking with a reporter in Phuket, and the reporter said something like:

"The hardest hit are the children who had their lives wiped out by the tsunami. I watched a group of them in a classroom, and they seemed happy: laughing, playing, learning. But it only took a few minutes of talking with them before the tears came. You wonder how they will be able to recover from such devastating losses."

…so the kids were in the process of healing the way kids do: getting on with their lives. And then you came along, and for the sake of your exploitive storyline, talked them back into being upset. If they have nightmares for life, it's because you upset the healing process. Nice job, idiot.

"We followed one girl walking home alone, and you wonder what is going through her mind."

I would assume she was probably thinking, "Stay away from me, you weirdo. Stop following me!"

The reporter then moved on to talk about the people cleaning up:

"After the tsunami came the next step, which may be even worse."

What? The CNN reporters descending en masse to advance their careers to the detriment of the locals?

"The clean-up: These people are working so hard. Many work as long as they can stay awake. One wonders where they find the energy to persevere in such hard working conditions, why they continue."

And I’m sure it helps inspire them to see you standing there in a clean shirt, rested and relaxed, holding a chilled bottle of water you don’t share. They are probably motivated by the hope that as soon as they finish what they have to do (cleaning up their country), they can rip your head from its body.

That wasn't all of the condescending garbage spouted by this jerk, not by half. But it’s all I can remember. Then a later segment on the news channel (after Wolf Blitzer’s Report was over?) went to an attractive young lady (with clean clothes, perfect make-up and hair, obviously freshly-showered) who was going to talk about "Living the Tragedy in Sri Lanka". I hope that someday I can meet her at a party and listen to her bragging about the tragedy she "lived" in January 2005….like maybe she could only get her latte in a 14-ounce plastic cup instead of her usual 12-ounce, and not even earth-friendly biodegradable! ...or something equally petty. The gall of these people to assume they can package up the tragedy and dole it out in sympathetic packets of rationed guilt and responsibility…