It is truly amazing sometimes when you watch the coverage of events such as the destruction and death toll from the Indian Ocean tsunamis. It also puts into perspective what the media (and I can only speak of the American media, since that is primarily what I see) finds important. Not only the television coverage, but also the daily newspapers. I look forward to seeing the perspective the weekly papers and magazines use when they appear next week, since I expect this story to be cover featured.

Anyway, I have been taken aback that the major story seems to be how some super-model was hurt and traumatized by the event. It seemed that almost every telecast I saw last night, and several newspaper articles focused on the model, actor Jet Li (who injured his foot, apparently while shielding his son from the rising water), several soccer players and others whose well-fare was certainly more important then the hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans involved.

I'm reminded of a skit I saw years ago, I believe it was on SCTV, but it might also have been on some other sketch comedy show. It featured a nightly news show from a small country covering the destruction of Seattle, WA by some natural event. The loss of life and economic impact was ignored and the fact that no one from this small country was involved was the primary focus. Several nationals who had visited Seattle at some point were 'interviewed' so that a "local" perspective could be sort. I remember it being a funny skit, but one you thought about after it was finished and realized how true it was.

My heart felt thoughts and wishes go out to the families of those effected by the event. We can only hope that many of the missing will be found and that the high loss of live will in the end turn out to be much lower than is believed.

Regarding the amount of U.S. aid being sent, as someone at the UN (I believe) said, the American government will spend a billion or more dollars for a single B1 bomber, but then will offer/promise (not necessarily actually come through with) about a tenth of that to help the millions of people effected by this tragedy.

Compassionate conservatism and Christian values at their finest!