Britain’s “The Spoof” Magazine sums up the difference between Asian typhoons and North American hurricanes:
After hoping for a windfall of world attention, Chinese authorities are disappointed to report only 5,000 homes destroyed and 31,000 acres of crops wiped out. “We expected a lot more out of Longwang, especially after all the hype,” Chinese authorities said today.
It quickly became apparent that Longwang was no match for Katrina in terms staying power in the news. As opposed to Katrina’s continued dominance in the media, Longwang has quietly limped out of the world’s headlines, much to the chagrin of China. Hoping to draw as much attention to Longwang as the U.S. enjoyed with Katrina’s international exposure, China now finds itself on the short-end of the stick in terms of global sympathy. “No one is interested in hearing about China’s Longwang when the U.S. is still showing pictures of Katrina’s wild swing through New Orleans,” said a journalist for China’s main newspaper. Some suspect that China hoped to parlay any wide-spread typhoon damage into an international aid scheme and have been disappointed by Longwang’s poor performance.
Note to non-native English speakers: “Spoof” means to joke, hoax, parody or satire.
1
By Keir
It’s certainly satire, but has enough truth to it to hit home. I certainly haven’t heard much of it from the western rags I read.
October 8, 2005 @ 11:29 pm | Comment
2
By Martyn
Exactly Keir, and that’s why I posted it.
Longwang passed straight over poor Richard in Taiwan last Saturday. It was originally forecast to hug China’s southern coast down to Hong Kong but went into Fujian instead and fizzled out (the warm ocean feeds typhoons) so we were lucky down here.
October 9, 2005 @ 12:08 am | Comment
3
By dishuiguanyin
Since Tuesday I’ve been looking for some more coverage about the 80(?) dead police/army cadets in Fujian, and I’ve been disappointed. ACB’s got a couple of articles and that’s all I’ve found.
Then again, I guess China’s lucky that Longwang wasn’t in any way comparable with Katrina, or with the Pakistani earthquake.
October 9, 2005 @ 6:07 am | Comment
4
By Brian
The media predicted tens of thousands of deaths after Katrina and most Americans drank all that hype right up. The media has since been found to have screwed right up. The death toll was just over a thousand.
I was disappointed how so many Americans lost control after Katrina and tearfully mourned the unique city of New Orleans. Cities can be re-built, dead people can’t. How many people does China and the rest of Asia lose to natural disasters in a normal year?
Perspective.
October 9, 2005 @ 6:22 am | Comment
5
By Ivan
Brian,
I halfway agree with you, but there’s another way to look at rebuilding cities versus people:
Some cities – like New Orleans can never be rebuilt in exactly the same way – BECAUSE they were built by people who were extraordinary – and who lived among each other in extraordinary ways – and who are gone now.
Rebuilding a city in exactly the same way, is as impossible as repainting a Van Gogh or a Le Brun (well, if there were no copied prints made): Van Gogh is gone, and Mme Vigee Le Brun is gone (oh alright I confess, I have a crush on her :-), and no one can ever QUITE copy what they painted.
Same goes for New Orleans.
October 9, 2005 @ 6:47 am | Comment
6
By John B
The problem is that Longwang was neutralized by the North Korean No Dong missile test.
October 12, 2005 @ 10:33 am | Comment