Cylcone Pyar hit AP and caused destruction to life and property.
Almost with cyclical efficience, cyclones have hit AP this year destroying property and life. Around a 60 dead (officially) and 200,000 displaced - evacuated with monotonous efficiency by the armed forces. Yet, if you read the press, or blogdom - there is nary a comment about it. Or maybe, i am not reading the press or blogs, or viewing news channels that carry extensive coverage on Cyclone Pyar.
And it may seem churlish of me to bring up this point, but in the west, if a single person dies in something like this it is a calamity. Whereas, in India, unless a 100,000 die it is routine. This is the extent of damage so far:
Authorities evacuated people in Khammam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna and Guntur districts. More than 50,000 people have been shifted to safe places and relief camps since Tuesday.Not only the villages by the flooding rivers, but even large parts of towns and cities were also submerged.They include the state’s commercial capital Vijayawada in Krishna district; the pilgrim town Bhadrachalam in Khammam; Eluru in West Godavari and Rajhamundry in East Godavari.
I spoke to my periappa (father’s elder brother) and periamma (his wife) in Vishakapatname - they say that the worst seems to be over. But, there is no guarantee. You can see the sea from their house in Vizag, and they tell me that he looks very, very angry. Fishermen have told them that the rains are probably going to continue.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, when i studied the media - we looked at the impact of colonisation on how we see our selves. And example was that of Surinam (capital: Paramaribo) gaining independence. And neighbouring Southern American countries carrying a lead story on that day of a jewellery heist in New York. Classic argument for NWICO.
Except that in a India, it is not so much western focussed news as much as celeb focussed trivia! The (non) coverage of the floods in the MSM & in blogdom reminded me of that story
update:Charu pointed me in the direction of Rediff’s coverage of the cyclone. The Pics are from STR/AFP/Getty Images. QED:)
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