Gaza or Darfur?

I am confused. For a long time now I have been agonizing over the crises in Sudan. The warfare claimed 2 million lives there in the last 15 years, 300 000 in Darfur in this last conflict alone. And what about the Zimbabwe humanitarian crisis? Did/do we hear much about either of them? Not much.

But here comes the Gaza crisis - do we hear about it? You bet! Around the clock CNN coverage, pro and con demonstrations, fiery pro and con reports and commentaries, "the works".

The only explanation I can come up with for this unbalanced media attention is that in Israel journalists camp out in air conditioned comfy hotels, literally just a few kilometres from the war zone, so it is very easy for them to be at interesting spots within minutes, to put together literally a flood of visually compelling, technically perfect reports. They could not possibly do the same in Sudan. After all, it is "too dangerous" there. Better just ignore it...

But what is the result of this unbalanced reporting? Unbalanced response from the public, of course! Do media people ever think of such things? I wonder. Most people do not consciously seek out all the necessary information that would allow them to have a good overall view of the World at any given time. Most people are satisfied to follow the headlines and adjust their "emotion du jour" accordingly.

Media people keep forgetting the essence of their work in all this rush for making a living by digging up the hottest morsels the easiest way possible. They not only influence the general public, their reports, together with the public opinion, have tremendous influence on politicians, also, and this way they impact and to a certain degree shape history. They are the ones who tell us what is important in the world at any given moment. Unfortunately the impression is that Africans are considered by far less important than Palestinians and/or Israelis.