:: The Materialistic Worldview ::

:: 21 september, 2006 ::

News of Today

It is a testament of the peoples utter detachment from reality and their sense of priorities that all the major news stations seem to be allocating more time and effort into finding out how Richard Hammond, the host of the TV show Brainiac, is doing after his crash in a jet car than what is happening in Budapest and the riots there. Now, I know that people want to know what is happening to famous people and all that. I also am well aware of the fact that news stations allocate almost no time to news from around the world and big events happening outside Europe. This I have become used to, although I do not think that the lives, suffering and joys of people in Asia are in any way less than those of Europe. The sad fact is that those events probably will not affect us as much as what happens in Europe.

But let’s look at the current topic again. On the one hand we have huge riots in Budapest, a country that has not seen any substantial rioting and public unrest since the Budapest uprising in 1956. The prime minister lied to the people of Hungary; the budget deficit is such that the country will not be able to adapt the Euro as they had planned. Foreign investment will in all probability decline in the country and Hungary and its people might be forced into some kind of economic isolation. Hungary might have gone on to be the next Ireland, a poor country that attracts foreign investment and workforce to the benefit of those already there. Basically, another good example of what the European cooperation can achieve.

Richard Hammond had the great unfortunate to crash his jet car at 370 mph and has probably suffered brain injury. This is not something that is to be taken lightly, nor should the media ignore it. But might I point out a few points. His was an accident that was completely self-imposed. He was after all driving a car at 370 mph, and accidents do happen. This publicity would never have been generated if he would have been a regular stunt driver, he is a TV presenter and therefore everyone seems to think that it is our business how severe his injuries are and how it happened. The news should give him and his family some peace, his doctors’ time to take care of him and turn to subjects that actually can, and probably will, affect the general public in some way.

:: Jón Grétar 18:27 [+] ::
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