Double Flee A

tragedy vs. tragedy

Katrina hit New Orleans and killed thousands of people. I'm not saying it's not awful. Here's a photograph that yahoo is pushing to commemorate it:


Yep, a doll's head. I guess we're supposed to use our imaginations and think about the loss of innocence, a favorite theme of country music (always a female in coutry music losing her innocence. it's revolting. every half hour.). If it's not a loss of innocence then I don't know what it could be. A doll's head isn't as powerful an image as a city under water, or an obnoxious sportsplex, mecca of all-american good times, full of poverty, filth and misery. We, as consumers, demand more. We want our feelings validated by the news cycle. We want the loss of innocence, our innocence, to be the center of our own attention.

Let Dale tell you where that image was really from. In a town called Bhopal, India, a company called Union Carbide opened a chemical factory. In 1984, some water got into a holding tank, causing the production of toxic gases, which escaped. Then, and this isn't debatable, ensued the worst industrial disaster in history. The leak killed thousands outright and injured anywhere from 150,000 to 600,000 others, at least 15,000 of whom died later from their injuries. And we're talking birth defects statistics beyond the dreams of epidemiologists. That's what pesticides do to humans, and that's why the factory was in India anyway.

Here's a picture of one of the victims:


Look familiar?

posted by dale @ 8:25 AM