To not want to hear any more about the Californian fires

[Viviennemary]

For a start I do feel a lot of sympathy for folk who have lost everything in those fires. But what is the point of telling us night after night about the devastation these fires are causing, we can't do anything about it nobody can. And America is a rich country and can afford to rebuild. Unlike Gaza where folk have been left with nothing, and hardly had much in the first place.

The problem is that the news is plugging about all the rich people who have lost their homes, but no real mention of the utter devastation it has caused to the everyday people who have lost everything.

One of my school mum friends moved back to America when her eldest finished primary school here. She is an ordinary mum and has lost everything she could not pack in her car. She is pleased that the family is safe, but completely heartbroken that their home is gone. Plus her and her friends don’t know what comes next.

The war in Gaza is terrible, but the fires are news of what is happening at present.

Well the UK better watch out then. They are the ones that stolen it in the first place.

How do you suggest people helps Gaza? Should we stop everything for that conflict? What a weird world we are living in.

You sound like a really odd person. If you don't want the children to be frightened or the household unsettled then all you have to do is bury your head in the sand, turn off the TV, and pretend it isn't happening. There, that wasn't so difficult was it? Thank goodness the majority of people in the world aren't like you and actually are interested in what happens around the world or country, good or bad - and I suspect the news isn't broadcast simply to satisfy you.

Maybe read the post properly, the poster said it’s not all due to climate change, note the use of the word all. And they are quite correct in what they said. Bush fires in Australia have been happening for a very long time.

Well, after the horrors of WW2 and the holocaust, the world founded international institutions to try to prevent such things from happening again by working together and building mutual trust beyond borders. People can put pressure on their elected representatives to act via these structures. Right now there are many who are actively trying to dismantle these institutions and they’ve lost their power. While countries turn inwards and the international structures are not working and likely to be swept away, we risk returning to the pre WW2 state, you can hear it in Trump/Greenland/Panama. Agree, it’s a weird world, with a very short concept of history.

Have you ever been part of a disaster where thousands of people had to flee from their homes, many of them losing their homes and all their possessions, and possibly animals? Thought not.

I am frankly shocked by the responses on this thread, and it seems that many sitting safely in the UK, who have not the slightest idea of what a disaster on this scale is like, are incapable of understanding, let alone showing any compassion.

Yet another example of Brits not having the faintest idea about life beyond their own back yards. Brick and stone do not fare well in earthquakes.

Weren't you lot the ones who stole it? Committing genocide in the process.

People will really turn themselves inside out to deny climate change.

Agree with those who’ve said that this thread is grim. This site is not a good part of the social media landscape here and hasn’t been for a long time. Gaza and LA, and whatever else is happening in the news are not just battering rams in your culture wars, they are real people suffering real hardship.

Maybe you should read the post properly. The pp directly said the fires were caused by not enough burning off.

The Australian fires were caused by colonial settlers not respecting or understanding the land and listening to what the native population have been warning them about.. it’s not all due to climate change.

Read this and weep:

NSW fires: The Gospers Mountain fire

Yeah the fire coverage is a bit much but it makes a welcome change from bloody Gaza all the time! I am sick and tired of Gaza/Palestine/Israel considering the conflict there has been going on for what, 75 years, and shows no sign of stopping in our lifetimes so why cover it at all let alone so much. I am bored of it. So I welcome any respite in the news even if it is fires in Hollywood.

Genocide, it’s so bloody boring.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/11/un-special-committee-finds-israels-warfare-methods-gaza-consistent-genocide

Have you considered that news may not be there to serve as your entertainment?

As I said its been going on for 75 years, and shows no signs of stopping in our lifetime. It will still be going on when every commenter on this thread is dead. What is the point of covering it non-stop? None of us can do anything about it. I get mentioning it occasionally but its the non-stop coverage. All the non-stop coverage does is desensitise people to the carnage.

My childcare worker lost her home. I’m fairly certain she’s not excessively rich given she’s working for $25 an hour. I have colleagues and friends who have saved and worked so hard to afford basic starter houses, and they’re gone. There’s literally chunks of ash falling from the sky in my area at this minute, but given that I still have a house I can’t complain.

Im sorry we’re clogging up your news feed

Have any of you actually seen the size of the devastation? Or are you still stupid enough to think that “it’s just a few rich people who have lost their homes” I can’t believe MN is allowing this thread to continue. If this was written about a natural disaster in the UK it would have been deleted immediately. But it seems that the old USA bashing is absolutely fine even when they are going through, probably the worst natural disaster they have ever experienced.

I wonder if these fires would get this huge amount of TV news coverage if it was sub Saharan Africa 🤔

Agree. It’s a harsh thread and lacking empathy

Maybe people get fed up with stuff as they watch too much news

We can’t just ignore all other events due to one

Agree. It’s a harsh thread and lacking empathy

Sadly, not just this thread.

Quite OP …plastic melts unfortunately (!) but is cheap and easy to replace in the land of the free

Its a shame that watching and reading the news is compulsory.

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I agree to some extent. The bad floods in Lincolnshire have barely been mentioned on our national news channels. The BBC news channel is supposed to be the British Broadcasting Corporation but every time I turn it on now they are talking about American news, whether it be the fires or Trump.

I don't pay my license fee so I can have American news and politics 24 hours a day.

Not Lincolnshire, but we saw Melton Mowbray specifically mentioned several times on BBC national news, Melton being about a 15 minute drive from the nearest town in Lincolnshire.

No, its a fantastic comment! And so very true. Many of us are really sick and tired of the non-stop coverage of a war that's been going on for 75 years and will still be going on when we're all dead. What's happening in Syria, and in Ukraine and elsewhere don't get anywhere near the nonstop coverage that that Gaza gets.