In no sense can we or should we downplay the horror of what happened at Virginia Tech. But this fortnight’s Private Eye had some chilling statistics that put things into perspective somewhat. As i say, in no sense does this belittle what happened and the problem with mortality stats is that we immediately forget that each one was a life with friends and family who now grieve – it is more a comment on the western media’s obsessions than anything else:
NUMBER CRUNCHING
- 400 – people killed in cross-border raid by Sudanese army on Chad last month
- 200 – people killed in single day of terrorist attacks in Iraq last week
- 100 – people killed in petrol tank explosion in Nigeria last month
- 100 – people killed in mining disaster in Russia last month
- 60 – people killed in single day’s fighting in Somalia last week
- 33 – people killed on university campus in America last week.
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3000 African children dying of malaria each day (according to 2003 statistics; has this changed much since?):
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2003/pr33/en/
That’s all too true – malaria is STILL Africa’s biggest killer despite being SO preventable and (on the whole totally) treatable. That is what makes it so iniquitous – malaria is essentially only a fatal disease for the poor.