I just read this report in the ANU Reporter on the Democratic Republic of Congo....

Its the first time I've ever heard anything about it and its one of the greatest human tragedies in the world today. Why is this stuff not reported? Why is Palestine / Israel so important, with 10 mintues out of 30 every night and a tragedy with 100 times more deaths doesn't get a bleep?

Do we just not care about Africa? Why do we care about some places and not others?

PhD Student: Research information sheet

There once was a man named Bruce
Who liked to sit on a spruce
He ate lots of chowder
And yelled at me louder:
"I'm talking to YOU, Mrs. Hughes!"
--> The Literary Genius: Mowgli

Watch Hotel Rwanda.

Christian missionaries have been going into the Congo to do aid work (principally running hospitals) for decades, and they haven't stopped for the civil war, which is an escalation of violence that has been endemic for years. Unfortunately, Christians are routinely persecuted and tortured in the Congo by some groups, so numbers remaining have fallen since war broke out. And that leaves the Congo in need of even more aid workers and doctors.

Mrs G
The Garner who cares.

A student of journalism once told me that we get to see about ten percent of what might me called "news" from all over the world. Another example that comes to my mind: circa four years ago there was a major flood catastrophe in Mosambique. There was a lot of media interest, and the country received help (and that's good, of course).
In exactly the same year, there was a flood catastrophe in Bangladesh that killed ten times as many people than the one in Mosambique and went almost unnoticed by the western media.

Similar thing (I seem to be stuck with floods, but those are the examples I had in mind, sorry...): Its not a tragedy of the same degree (?) as in the examples quoted so far in this thread, but in Rumania, 30 of 41 provinces of the country are fighting a flood that made 13 000-15 000 people homeless, killed and just doesn't seem to stop. This is going on since April (!). You hardly hear about it, even if its a going-to-be-EU country, while the flood in Eastern Germany was a very public thing throughout the neigbour countries, as far as I remember.

"Hoher Sinn liegt oft im kindischen Spiel." (Friedrich Schiller)

Probably because we're closer to the western world (we're in fact a part of it).

That and the French.

Anticipate charity by preventing poverty. - Rabbi Moshe ben-Maimon

What's with the French? Besides everyone hating them that is.

PhD Student: Research information sheet

There once was a man named Bruce
Who liked to sit on a spruce
He ate lots of chowder
And yelled at me louder:
"I'm talking to YOU, Mrs. Hughes!"
--> The Literary Genius: Mowgli

Them hating us, for one.

Anticipate charity by preventing poverty. - Rabbi Moshe ben-Maimon

I don't hate the French... :?

Ahh but if you come back they 'shall taunt you a second time" whahaho...

And I realise what that looses without the accent, but its my favourite

Roman: Why do the French hate the Israelis? Forgive my ignorance I am a mere 20,000km away and so not such a pressing issue in historical terms.

Edit to add Roman cos I realised he might not know I'm asking him something

PhD Student: Research information sheet

There once was a man named Bruce
Who liked to sit on a spruce
He ate lots of chowder
And yelled at me louder:
"I'm talking to YOU, Mrs. Hughes!"
--> The Literary Genius: Mowgli

I think the French just hate everyone and everyone hates the French. It's a win-win deal.

(Playing blind Pictionary, me drawing)
Ella: Is it a giraffe?
Me (stops drawing): No
Ella: Star Trek?
Me: Yes!

Well, it all started when De-Galle decided to rebuild the French goverment in his image...

It's been going downhill ever since.

Anticipate charity by preventing poverty. - Rabbi Moshe ben-Maimon

Woo yeah! Any chance my mother was a hamster and my father smelt of elderberries?

Why he want to do something silly like that? I mean the French government blows up ships in foreign harbours, kills foreign visiting royalty and generally amkes the rest of the worlds life miserable by Trade Marking the word Champagne...

Actually I see your point.

Only if you let me spit in your general direction.

PhD Student: Research information sheet

There once was a man named Bruce
Who liked to sit on a spruce
He ate lots of chowder
And yelled at me louder:
"I'm talking to YOU, Mrs. Hughes!"
--> The Literary Genius: Mowgli

He he he... huzzah for the Monty Python boys.

The reason Palestine/israel got so much media coverage is that for the first time since 1947 things are moving without anyone getting blown up.

As for Africa? Google Delta of Niger+Oil Companies+Human Rights and be depressed.