{"id":7078,"date":"2017-09-03T18:42:09","date_gmt":"2017-09-03T17:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schspin.wordpress.com\/?p=7078"},"modified":"2019-06-21T20:58:08","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T20:58:08","slug":"suedasien-und-wir-brown-lives-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schspin.stieve.com\/gb\/2017\/09\/03\/suedasien-und-wir-brown-lives-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Brown People Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Asia and a German Film – Brown People Matter<\/h1>\n

Today\u2018s text is about the media coverage of the floods in USA and South Asia, the German film MONSOON BABY, fake news and two projects \u2013 one dance and one documentary – that are being crowdfunded at the moment.<\/p>\n

Floods<\/h2>\n

2. Sept. 17
\nIt is Saturday morning, I turn on the radio and listen to a feature on Texas \/ USA, the effects of tropical hurricane \u201eHarvey\u201c, floodings, destroyed houses, nearly 60 dead, evacuated people, individual fates in short interviews.
\nAt the full hour there\u2018s the news, again featuring Texas, and twenty minutes later the next report on it, this time announcing that US president Donald Trump will visit the disaster area again.
\nThe media in Germany started reporting on the disaster even bevor the hurricane reached Texas and have been doing so since then, daily, sometimes every hour and more.
\nIt took much longer for the media to pick up on the floodings in South Asia. In India, but also in Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan this year\u2018s monsoon caused extreme floodings, more than 1,500 people did in the last three weeks (different sources mention figures between 1,300 and 2,100 dead), it ruined harvests, and is leading to hunger and diseases.
\nBut news are sparse, in Germany and also in other countries, daily extensive background information, donation appeals (e.g. in public TV and radio) are missing.
\nIt is evident that I don\u2018t want to play down the sufferings of the people in Texas. But just listening to the figures of those who died there and there makes me catch my breath. From Texas we more or less heard daily updates concerning the numbers, 30, 32, 35, 41, 47, 50, 55, 57 dead; the figures for South Asia are estimations, rounded numbers. But not 30, 50 or 100 persons, but more than 1,000, maybe 1,500 or 1,700 people, who drowned or were buried in landslides or killed by electric shocks. 45 M people, 16 M of these being children, are directly affected by this disaster.<\/p>\n

Fill the Gaps!<\/h2>\n

A lot of people keep saying \u201eyes, but the USA are closer to us\u201c – maybe, yes. When I look at my Twitter bubble, e.g. the international film industry contacts and the networks of my contacts, then it is understandable that I read more tweets on US topics in my timeline \u2013 whether important or completely banal, more tweets than on most other countries and regions. But even the fact that I try to follow \u201eresponsible media\u201c etc. does not really lead to a true globalisation of the information available to me, just as listening to and watching to public radio and TV programmes. But I do need these other, different news. Isn\u2018t that one of the tasks of public news programmes?
\nI don\u2018t want to have to listen to endless reports and speculations all the time on how and if and when US president Trup is visiting Texas and if he will have photos taken together with disaster victims as his predecessors did \u2013 as long as I don\u2018t even know (because it is never mentioned) who are the heads of government in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. I know more about the shoes Melania Trump wore at her last visit to Texas than about German relief organisations that are active in South Asia at the moment and that collect donations. The German media often report on racism of whites against blacks in the USA \u2013 and are silent when the lives and deaths of brown people are concerned, in South Asia.
\nI don\u2018t worry so much about fake news (which have always existed), but about topics that are being ignored. About which issues are rated as important and which as unimportant information.<\/p>\n

Information<\/h2>\n

A fews days ago Will Worley<\/strong> wrote in an article called South Asia flooding: How you can help the millions of victims<\/a> (The Independent 30. Aug.): \u201cWriting to your MP or donating to charities are among the ways you can help<\/em>.\u201c and: \u201cWrite to your MP and ask them to raise the issue in Parliament when it reconvenes. Ask them\u00a0to ask for the UK to commit funding to the relief effort<\/em>.\u201c He included a link to a website<\/a> where you can find your MP. As helpful charities he recommended Unicef and Oxfam.<\/p>\n

In the German version of this text I included information about German relief organizations and also about German MPs and candidates (with our next general elections coming up on Sept. 24). Here I can at least add the heads of government for the four mentioned South Asian countries:<\/p>\n