Op-Ed Contributors

Qinghai quake spared media circus

By Philip J Cunningham (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-20 07:52

Editor's note: Although earthquakes produce devastation, they are just the natural adjustment of earth. It is comprehensible for people to vent anger in the face of tragedy, but it is not logical and fair to blame the tragedy on anyone. There are no known cases where a government is responsible for an earthquake, but world media sometimes loses the perspectives and tries to exploit a perceived ethnic angle.

When the earth shakes, the world's media trembles with anticipation. Although earthquakes are random acts of nature and unevenly distributed, news consumers everywhere can instantly empathize with the shock, grief and loss when the very earth underfoot unexpectedly sways or gives way.

Although earthquakes are natural tectonic adjustments, they produce devastation and human tragedy comparable to war. While wars are wholly man-made and a reflection of the foibles and follies of humankind, earthquakes cannot rightfully be blamed on people, though the desire to find fault in the aftermath of a tremblor is potent.

I remember walking through the ruins of Kobe in January 1995, when homeless citizens clustered around bonfires to keep warm and lined up to get drinking water and hot noodles. There was palpable anger at the Japanese authorities for not saving this or that location, for allowing fires to burn, for allegedly favoring rich areas and ignoring the poor. While Japan's response did not meet the high expectations residents had of their "anzen kuni" or "land of safety," much of the criticism was emotional rather than rational.

That people seek to vent anger in the face of heartbreaking tragedy is natural. Pointing one's finger at the earth itself is futile, but frustration builds by the day and the human blame game begins. It's not entirely fair or logical, but perhaps comprehensible for cathartic reasons, that rage and grief seek a convenient lightning rod on which to unload their charge.

There are no known cases where a government is actually responsible for an earthquake, rather governments bear the brunt of anger because ever since humankind has gathered itself into tribes and nations, there is an unspoken pact that society's appointed caretakers should rise to the challenges of natural disasters with competence and concern. In ancient times in China, this was called the mandate of heaven, and subjects judged their rulers by the response to such upheavals. So, too, it is today.

China has been unlucky to have suffered two big earthquakes in two years in a region so remote and mountainous that just getting to the epicenter and carrying out rescue efforts is difficult, but lucky to have so many people of courage.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has been on the scene within hours in both cases, perhaps a record response time for any national leader. More importantly, his visits to devastated areas are a symbolic reminder that society's most vulnerable citizens require immediate attention from those empowered to provide the most help.

Reputable international aid organizations and United Nations relief efforts can provide supplementary help, but generally there is no actor on the scene better placed to respond to such a disaster than a sovereign government which possesses the material resources, manpower and logistical leeway to address tragedy of such a scale.

After the dust settles, the most reasonable way to judge the response is the speed and quality of rescue efforts, medical care, and the provisioning of food, water and shelter.

There's also a learning moment in the aftermath of earthquakes, a window for discussion of related issues that normally might not seem so urgent, such as examination of building codes and the quality of construction materials, although it's a case of mending the fence after the sheep are gone.

Earthquakes are the ultimate human-interest story, but the world media sometimes loses perspective. One needs only to consider the thousands of front page news reports, television specials, talk shows, and on-the-scene stand-ups of famous media personages elbowing one another to report from poor Haiti to see how a earthquake narrative can go far beyond objective reporting into the realm of commercial-driven ratings wars, star turns, and humanitarian posturing. Are the photo-ops of media celebrities with stylish hair and powdered faces in safari suits really necessary?

Perhaps because it took place so close the US, home to a gluttonous media market, and because Haiti is so weak, the earthquake there was pumped up, massaged for all its worth and then squeezed dry, manipulated by the entertainment-driven media to sell media brands, along with soap, cars and smug political righteousness.

Not so in Qinghai. China's media and humanitarian agencies were quick to report on the recent quake and quick to rush aid to devastated areas. Foreign reporters were part of the response process.

Elite purveyors of so-called humanitarian narratives, such as the New York Times, which has recently come under fire for racial insensitivities in its own newsroom, slyly tried to exploit a perceived ethnic angle, but more generally, independent reports have been fair and without much bias.

Since the Beijing foreign press corps' coverage of the Qinghai quake has been reasonably free of sensationalism, and China's governmental response fast, reasonable and competent, the carnival barkers of the global media circus will have to go elsewhere in search of their next big story.

The author is a visiting scholar at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

(China Daily 04/20/2010 page9)