Don’t get me wrong – Japan is tragic and fucking hard to deal with, and it’s scary, and so on and so on. But until something changes there is nothing significant happening here. They’re on it. Good work. Keep it up. We’ll do what we can to help, and that probably involves a bit fucking less media-led rubber-necking.
In Libya and Bahrain the people who are trying to overthrow their shitty rulers are being killed. If this continues to happen, they will not see another revolution for at least a generation since the key activists will be dead and the movement beheaded. A new generation will have to grow up to take their place, spending their lives fatherless, and being so pissed off that they have the appetite for revolution when they come of age.
Gaddafi, the monarchy in Bahrain, and the countries which would follow are getting off lightly, because we’re not watching.
This is a pivotal moment for something exciting, wonderful, and world-changing to happen: a popular, democratic uprising which can entirely shift the path for Islam, Africa, and the Gulf.
Unlike Fukushima, where unfortunately paying attention doesn’t change a damned thing about the critical mass, the attention we paid to the situation in Tunisia and Egypt helped create the meltdown moment by drawing a critical mass of people into the streets, creating the energy which made it impossible for the regimes to hold.
So, media editors of the world, if you want something to go critical, blow up, and change the world, get back to covering Libya and Bahrain please.