Up, Down and All Around

Senseless deaths. Senseless lives.

I was channel surfing last night when I chanced upon the start of the Oprah Winfrey Show on Studio 23. They were featuring footage from investigative reports filed by journalists over the years from locations like Ethiopia, China, and Cambodia.

Two of the stories keep coming to mind today:

• A 3-year old girl whom nurses say were minutes away from dying in famine-stricken Ethiopia, back in 1984. The footage was taken by a journalist from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It was this coverage of Ethiopia, particularly the image of this little girl, that moved Sir Bob Geldof to organize Band-aid and led to the birth of the chart-topping single "Do They Know It's Christmas."
  
• A 2-year old girl left alone in a "Dying Room" in one of China's many orphanages. Two British journalists posing as orphanage workers had sneaked in a video camera and managed to record footage of a little girl that had been left alone for 10 days in a "Dying Room." Chinese orphanage workers did not enter the room at all during those 10 days and only waited for other children to come and tell them whether or not the girl was still alive. She died four days after the journalists visited and the orphanage denied her existence when asked about her later. It's not clear why she was singled out to die. But she was frail, starving, filthy, and obviously in so much pain. I feel like crying whenever I think of her.

These journalists have made such a difference in the world simply by doing their jobs. They have called the world's attention to horrible events and have led people to assist financially (in the case of Band-aid) or moved people to open the doors of their homes and their hearts (through the rising number of Chinese baby girls being adopted).

At times like this, I feel very small and wonder why the heck I'm on this earth in the first place. Shows like that make me want to rethink my priorities and my life goals. Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing?

Life's many problems and day-to-day hassles suddenly seem very small and meaningless right now. And I am overwhelmed by gratitude for the many blessings that I enjoy.

Tags: Personal, TV

Posted by CF at 4:40 PM