Death is never something to treat lightly, it wrenches the heart, tears gennerations apart, and will eventutally visit us all. That's my preamble...As the interwebs have been reporting, actor Heath Ledger was found dead in New York yesterday (22-Jan-08). I have read many outpourings of emotions, and heard people speak of what a tradgedy it was. I totally agreee, his little child will not know him, and certainly the film world will miss his contribution to the medium. But the "real" tradgedy as I see it is the treatment of another story that broke the same day,..which points to the utter fickleness of the media, and also, unfortunatley speaks volumes about what type of society we are.
What I am referring to is the UN's annual report on infant mortaility. The report was released the same day of Heath Ledger's death, and despite the newsworthyness of the report, it was completley overshadowed and given very little press coverage by the major media outlets.
The following are two points from the report that should give every inhabitant of this pale blue dot major pause for thought:
- In 2006, nearly 9.7 million children died worldwide before their fifth birthdays, mostly from preventable causes such as diarrhea, malaria or malnutrition.
- More than 26,000 children under 5 die each day on average.
Each day,.... 26,000!! Despite that atrocious number, the study goes on to say that significant progress has been made from the previous year's study, and that there is great promise for the world's children.
A celebrity died yesterday, so did approximately 26,000 children. Heath Ledger deserves our condolences,... the children of the world deserve much, much better.
Thanks to aka Eddie for the discussion.
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