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.

Sorry but you are wrong.

If these fires had taken place somewhere where there are no white people, it would be a flash in the pan news story, then straight back to Trump and Musk again ~yawn~

What's the connection between thr fires in Cali and Gaza?
They are totally unrelated.

Absolute nonsense. Quit the race baiting. You're embarrassing yourself.

Just people trying to stir the pot. Trying to say 'but... but what about Gaza? The trouble there is as important as the L.A. fires.'

As if there has not been a ton of lengthy news items on the Palestine/Israel war for the past 15 months!!! 🙄

Every night we are bombarded with bulletins about this, and some people are trying to make out it hasn't been covered, with all this 'oh but because there are WHITE people affected - that is why the L.A. fires on the news a lot' nonsense! (And it is nonsense because the majority of people in L.A. aren't white!!!) 🙄

And as I said, we have had tons of news about middle east unrest/war on the news, night in, night out, for YEARS!

So the news is saturated with L.A. fires news this past week? Big deal. Get over it FFS! We have had to watch enough news about the middle east for the past God knows how many years!!! Deal with it!

.

I'm curious re the make up of the population of LA. What are the other ethnic groups?

Gaza has had over 40 billion in aid money since 2006, what did they do with it? If you are looking to blame anyone it is the terrorists, hamass. And it is not a zero sum game, we don’t have to be informed about only one tragedy in the world. There should be more on the news about the persecutions in Sudan, the ongoing genocide of the Kurds & Uyghurs, the repression of women in Afghanistan… there is more going on in the world today than just gaza.

I'm sure there is a thread about Gaza somewhere?

if we as a society know about all the wars across the globe, all the disasters etc we are more knowledgeable about the world, however can someone explain to me how knowing about these events means the average person can make a difference other than donating to x charity because then no tragedy should be more important than another with regard's to knowing about it, unless its relevant to each of our local areas ?

The BBC haven't undertood how to broadcast a balanced news programme for a generation. It's always disproportionate coverage, self promotion and personal viewpoints. Maybe good for a magazine programme, not for a news bulletin.

(Although the LA fires shoudl be the main story, so they are getting that right, over covered though)

From wiki

Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 46.9%
White : 28.9%
Asian 11.7%
Black or African American (alone): 8.3%
Two or more races: 3.3%
Other 0.7%
Native American 0.2%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (alone): 0.1%

And actually I was wrong about L.A. being 37% white, it's actually 28%. So even less than I said/thought. I got that from an old link when I posted previously.

Wow. Heartless.

Have you forgotten Hurricane Katrina?

A massive news story (rightly). Black citizens of NOLA were disproportionately affected by the floods.

I've been following a YouTube channel called Agenda Free TV which has been covering it all live, including police and fire scanners, and it's heart in mouth stuff hearing how water supplies have been running out. The videos coming from citizen journalists showing clumps of burning debris being blown from structure to structure, and emergency services trying to evacuate elderly folk from residential care homes, and hearing about lost pets and people dying trying to save their homes- ordinary people, like us - because insurance companies started cancelling accounts last summer are worth watching for the reality check.

My life is pretty shit at the moment, but it's reminded me to count my blessings. I can't imagine how shit it would be to have to evacuate your home, unable to find your pets or being separated from lived ones. I feel the same about any scenes of suffering for any reason, because there's feck all I can do about it.

All I can do is retain a shred of empathy for people caught up in shit not of their choosing, whether they're at the mercy of warmongers or Mother Nature.

As to the coverage - we have the absolute freedom to watch or not. It's as simple as that.

So MNetters across the pond living through this - all I can do is say I give a shit and I hope for the least worst outcomes and I can't imagine what you're going through, and hugs to those posting here.

To any MNetter suffering for any reason, hugs to you too.

Without our humanity, we have nothing at all.

This has to be one of the most callous posts I've read on Mumsnet in the 7 years of being on here. Celebrities are human too and many of them have worked hard for their homes and had their lives exposed to the world. They're still human.

I have two good friends and a sibling who live in LA and they are in bits with what's happened. Friends of theirs have lost their homes, places they have raised their families and had many happy memories.

Having a heart for the hundreds of thousands who have been affected in LA has nothing to do with disasters in other parts of the world. It's all shit. Count your blessings and work on your humanity.

And you can do something about it by donating the the many funds that have been set up. Every little helps.

Millionaire Mandy Moore has told people to ‘fuck off’ after being criticised for sharing the details of a Go Fund Me for her brother.

This woman has millions.

And we know that the poor are more generous than the rich, so she is effectively encouraging poorer people to give whilst she sits on millions.

It’s incredible ignorant to think LA is just rich white people. It is a huge news story and the implications for us all are scary. Same for the Valencia flooding, the Portuguese wildfires a year or so ago etc.

Nigeria wasn't under British rule.

I think it's more that it's accessible. LA is well served by roads, airports etc., lots of news teams there because of Hollywood etc. It can be photo'd for exciting footage on news sites. A fire in a part of Africa not well served by roads cannot get the same coverage - there probably isn't a news outlet there, either, or reporters from other countries or employed by other countries' news shows.

This has to be one of the most callous posts I've read on Mumsnet in the 7 years of being on here

While I don’t agree with the OP I wouldn’t go that far (maybe I need to spend less time on AIBU 😬)

Many poor people lost their homes and, because America hates the poor, won’t be able to rebuild. I agree that the amount of coverage the fires have had versus what Gaza gets is staggeringly different.

I hope you never complain about anything that happens in your life ever op.... because afteral.... GAZA!

I'm fine with indigenous wisdom. However, most of the time scientific fact is more reliable. I don't think one should teach e.g. creationism or purposeful design in science lessons.

Time for it not to be headline news every day… awful though it is- it’s a different continent, in the world’s richest country. They’ll be fine.

They won't because most were not insured for their houses burning down (too expensive because the risk was high) and if they are injured they are looking at whether their health insurance will pay out.