But the point is the majority of people in Europe (from where I am writing) don't have any particular personal connection with SE Asia. Of course there are individuals who are caught up on a personal level, but the numbers of Westerners affected are proportionally low because it's on the opposite side of the planet. Don't assume that diminishes my sympathy, but also don't assume that I'm going to care more because someone working in the affected area knows someone whose brother lives in the same town as me.lucretia wrote:And whilst YOU might not know anything at all about Indonesia, Thailand, Sumatra or other places in that area, there are many people worldwide who do and have families, friends and work colleagues in those regions who were there at the time of this natural catastrophe. I am speaking from personal experience here and I still don't know if that particular person is safe or not.
Being a celebrity does not mean your life is more worthwhile or worthless than the life of a homeless person on the side of the road and while it might seem inconceivable and "hideously impractical" to you, it is purportedly that precise mechanism in the human brain called "humanity" that allows us to tune into the global psyche at times like these and set us apart from insects.
I agree on the "manufactured grief" point above, especially with regards to the One minute silence and flags at half mast thing but unfortunately in the "civilised" world, our rituals kinda come with all that.
Therefore the public impact is less than in the case of the death of Diana (or David Beckham having an affair) simply because the people and places affected are not routinely pushed in our faces day after day.
I didn't say being a celeb made you more important or valuable. It just means you are recognisable to a greater number of people. How many people on here will confess to dubious fantasies about Mr Eldritch? How many of them would feel the same way if he was just another bloke in a leather jacket drinking in Leeds? One Andrew Eldritch should logically equal one Princess Diana or one Indonesian fisherman ... but we both know that when his time comes there will be far more discussion of that on here than there has been of anything else recently.
Hideously impractical relates directly to the idea that we should be 150,000 times more upset than this than we were by Diana's death. Of course, even that equation means we should only be 75,000 times more upset since Dodi was killed in the same crash (50,000 if the driver was killed too, I can't remember which rather proves my point about celebs). I don't know how many people die every day, but I'd guess it's a huge number. Do we mourn ever single one equally, irrespective of what difference they make to us personally? Will you have a minute's silence for each, or go to every funeral? Alternatively, will you be content with gawping at the TV before shrugging and getting on with your life when you lose someone close to you? Maybe we should value everyone equally, but with 6 billion people out there it's not realistic, is it?
for the teacher-jargon. 
