Category: World

For those who somehow believe that the BBC is a better source of news than, say, the American networks (not saying much, I’ll admit), I offer the following from The Telegraph:

‘Don’t mention the navy’ is the BBC’s line

Last week we were subjected to one of the most extraordinary examples of one-sided news management of modern times, as most of our media, led by the BBC, studiously ignored what was by far the most effective and dramatic response to Asia’s tsunami disaster. A mighty task force of more than 20 US Navy ships, led by a vast nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Abraham Lincoln, and equipped with nearly 90 helicopters, landing craft and hovercraft, were carrying out a round-the-clock relief operation, providing food, water and medical supplies to hundreds of thousands of survivors.

The BBC went out of its way not to report this. Only when one BBC reporter, Ben Brown, hitched a lift from one of the Abraham Lincoln’s Sea Hawk helicopters to report from the Sumatran coast was there the faintest hint of the part that the Americans, aided by the Australian navy, were playing.

Instead the BBC’s coverage was dominated by the self-important vapourings of a stream of politicians, led by the UN’s Kofi Annan; the EU’s “three-minute silence”; the public’s amazing response to fund-raising appeals; and a Unicef-inspired scare story about orphaned children being targeted by sex traffickers. The overall effect was to turn the whole drama into a heart-tugging soap opera.

The real story of the week should thus have been the startling contrast between the impotence of the international organisations, the UN and the EU, and the remarkable efficiency of the US and Australian military on the ground. Here and there, news organisations have tried to report this, such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine in Germany, and even the China News Agency, not to mention various weblogs, such as the wonderfully outspoken Diplomad, run undercover by members of the US State Department, and our own www.eureferendum.blogspot.com. But when even Communist China’s news agency tells us more about what is really going on than the BBC, we see just how strange the world has become.

One real lesson of this disaster, as of others before, is that all the international aid in the world is worthless unless one has the hardware and organisational know-how to deliver it. That is what the US and Australia have been showing, as the UN and the EU are powerless to do. But because, to the BBC, it is a case of “UN and EU good, US and military bad”, the story is suppressed. The BBC’s performance has become a national scandal.

As I’ve said before, I cry every time I read one of Chrenkoff‘s reports of good news, the latest of which is from Afghanistan. A major focus this time is the revitalization of agriculture, and the progress of switching from the poppy to more wholesome produce.

What other power in the history of the world turns its enemies’ homelands into farms and gardens? The bombs and weapons of war have served to till the soil, and the blood of innocents and tyrants alike has not been shed in vain, but as a famous American once said, is now nourishing the tree of liberty.

OK, I know I said I’d stop posting, but can I pass up a chance to link to some UN-bashing? I think not.

If your only news source is the Communadian Broadcasting Company, you’d think the UN was at the heart of the tsunami relief efforts. But people on the ground tell a different story:

We’ve found that to avoid running into the UN, we must go out to where the quake and tsunami actually hit. As we come up on two weeks since the disaster struck, the UN is still not to be seen where it counts — except when holding well-staged press events. Ah, yes, but the luxury hotels are full of UN assessment teams and visiting big shots from New York, Geneva, and Vienna.

…

Sitting VERY late for two consecutive nights in interminable meetings with UN reps, hearing them go on about “taking the lead coordination role,” pledges, and the impending arrival of this or that UN big shot or assessment/coordination team, for the millionth time I realized that if not for Australia and America almost nobody in the tsunami-affected areas would have survived more than a few days. If we had waited for the UNocrats to get their act coordinated, the already massive death toll would have become astronomical. But, fortunately, thanks to “retrograde racist war-mongers ” such as John Howard and George W. Bush, as we sat in air conditioned meeting rooms with these UNocrats, young Australians and Americans were at that moment “coordinating” without the UN and saving the lives of tens-of-thousands of people.

Chrenkoff’s latest Good News from Iraq is up.