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.

Coverage of the LA fires is intense because the pictures are there and they can only be used whilst the fire is raging - after that they are useless. Gaza has hardly been off our screens since October 7th 2023. More to the point is the paucity of coverage of e.g. Yemen and the ongoing tragedy of Sudan.

Sorry? If the US, then the USians stole the land after 1776 - the British had treaties in place that did not allow colonization of any land past the Appalachians (a result of the war between the UK and France - the USians call this the French-Indian wars, I think, and it was these the colonists objected to paying towards).

I think this pretty much sums it up.

People in the UK are generally (and I'm probably making a generalisation here) more interested in what is happening in the US than they are over what's happening in Gaza.

The LA fires is "new news", from a culturally very similar ally that we have a lot of ties with.
Where as the Gaza conflict... Obviously awful, but "old news" of over a year, from a place we have very few cultural (or any) ties with.

Good luck putting pressure on Hamas not to keep firing rockets at Israel and spending the billions of aid Gaza receives on the people they are supposed to be governing.

@MumWifeOther has a good point about electric cars. They are not good for the environment - useless once the battery is worn out - and bad for people in other ways. E.g. most parts are made in China, not a notably human rights orientated country, and minerals such as cobalt are coming from places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, and being mined by children who are virtual slaves.

Britain, which held the mandate for Palestine after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 (WWI) did not 'give' that territory to Israel. The UN mandated a country for the Jews after the Holocaust was revealed and since many Jews already lived in the area we call Palestine, which was a province of the Ottoman Empire, that was an obvious choice and one which the Jews wanted since it covered part of their ancestral country. The British are not to blame for everything, thanks. Next you will be saying they invented slavery and caused Noah's flood (or the Sumerian version).

I understand why it's had so much coverage. We're hurtling head first towards seeing more and more of these stories due to climate change (see also European floods). And then there's the 'celebrity effect' - when Sir Anthony Hopkins or Rikki Lake lose their houses to fire, it's newsworthy. One of the biggest natural disasters in US history is newsworthy.

Gaza rumbles on and on. It's had tonnes and tonnes of coverage, but people have become desensitised to it and have switched off (rightly or wrongly). People tuning in or switching off dictates the news agenda.

I continue to be shocked and saddened by the atrocities humans commit against one another due to oil, race or religion. But as a humanist there's still room for empathy towards anyone who has lost their home due to this fire. And let's not also forget the many animals and wildlife that have been lost/ continue to die. So very sad, on so many different levels.

There has been unrest in the Middle East for centuries. Esp since the invasion by Arabs in the 8th century AD and forcible conversion of the population. It wasn't exactly calm and peaceful when part of the Roman Empire either. Nor under the Ottomans.

I'm not blaming the British especially these days (& it was a controversial decision at the time as well) I'm explaining why news of it should be reported here for those who are interested & if somebody's not & chooses to follow Syria instead then that's ok too

Well, perhaps their government can step in and help in some way? TBH I’m with OP on this one. It’s sad they’ve lost their houses but the fact their county has fucked up healthcare is not really the business of anyone else.
They’ve just ties in a climate change denier who appears to be against any kind of universal healthcare.

‘I understand why it's had so much coverage.’

Hollywood. If this was in Ohio or Missouri we wouldn’t be watching it half as much.

The coverage of Gaza is ridiculous though, with mainstream media downplaying the horror and doing its best to excuse Israel for the atrocities it is committing.

This was in reference to Australia not the US - the poster I was replying to was talking about Australia (side discussion on the Australian fires and Indigenous peoples land management).

You must watch different media. I see nothing but blame for Israel. Hamas wears a cloak of invisibility in all this, called victimhood, but they are a bunch of terrorists who hold much of Gaza in thrall because of the consequences of speaking against them.

The media I watch generally shows the atrocities in Gaza and mentions a sentence or two about the Israeli hostages even though there’s babies and children amongst them. (I am not saying that the adult hostages don’t matter but there’s a baby who has spent their first year + as a hostage without mum or dad)

Thank you! And a great many of these people are not at all rich. For example, Altadena, which is a historically Black, lower/working class neighborhood, has experienced a large portion of home loss. One of the reasons that these fires are being so heavily reported is because so few people have the financial means to rebuild. My husband and I have friends who have lost their homes and they absolutely are not wealthy and do not have the financial means to rebuild, nor do the members of their direct communities. It doesn't make Gaza any less tragic or newsworthy but hopefully we can acknowledge that both are devastating, even if not equitably so.

Well, of course Israel should be blamed, as it is committing a genocide. Silly.