Quite Thought Full: Keep an eye, open heart on Sandy

Through snow, sleet and rain, you can always count on the media to create storms about storms. Some storms may be caused by a Hollywood couple or a political scandal, but a disastrous storm that rears its ugly head is certainly cause for media frenzy. Sandy has been no exception.

Over eight million people from Boston to Washington woke up Tuesday without power, without public transportation and without an encouraging morning news report to start off the day. Although the storm was downgraded from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone when it hit Monday at 8 p.m., Sandy has hurt too many to be considered anything less than a devastating natural event.

Some are calling Sandy the storm of the century. The New York Times called it a “once-in-a-generation storm.” And she’s no Frankenstorm either. Mother Nature is Frankenstein; Sandy, her monster. The Associated Press needs to go back and reread Frankenstein.

Before making jokes about this storm, everyone should take a step back to look at the damage, stop complaining about the wet, cold weather we’ve been experiencing in Pittsburgh and stop laughing at the memes of Sandy Cheeks.  The media needn’t to bring in the world’s smallest violin to play. Besides, the floods took it away along with some of my favorite neighborhood in New York City and the wind blew it out to sea next to some of the Ocean City boardwalks of both Maryland and New Jersey.

While much of the coverage is genuine and shows true concern for those in need, other media outlets have taken a different approach. The Atlantic magazine published an article on how to determine real Sandy storm photos from the fakes or photos that were taken before the storm hit. Photoshopped pictures of a doomsday sky looming over the Statue of Liberty have taken the spotlight, while pictures of the real damage of the raging fires in Queens and the destruction across the Delmarva Peninsula have been lost. These images are not only frightening to Americans, but to the rest of the world as well.

Max Fisher of The Washington Post discussed the world’s reaction to the storm that wreaked havoc up and down the East Coast on Tuesday. Much of the foreign attention has been on the world’s favorite American city, the Big Apple. But not all of the attention has been positive or even sympathetic for the city and its residents who are struggling with power outages, floods and more.

Fisher wrote that in some countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, the storm is being seen as a blessing and has been celebrated by citizens on social media. Hamad Ahariqi from the Islamist site LifeIslam.net, led the Islamic conservatives in praising the storm for its destruction of Americans. This celebration has gotten almost as much positive attention as it has criticism from the Middle East. A popular Saudi blogger, Ahmed al-Omran noted that “many [Saudis], like this one, are praying for safety of the U.S.”

Other news outlets are taking the opportunity to discuss larger global issues. Some French outlets are using the storm as a link to reintroduce global warming as a serious concern and others in India are covering the storm to try to determine how it will affect the economy and outsourcing business.

Take care, take note and say a prayer for all whom have lost or have been lost in this storm. Be thankful for the fact that it’s just a little colder, rainier and windier than normal on the Bluff.

 

Katie Walsh is a senior English and philosophy major and can be reached at walshk2@duq.edu.