China's elderly "orphans" - 08 Jun 08

[akanez01]

What happened to their son & daughter? what's happening to this world?...

where's the LOVE...

[AlotaMaple]

the love died along time ago...

[anotherOnefortheOne]

strong family bonds there....

[somethingawful01]

The true face of China. Selfishness and carelessness. Caring and love are not part of Chinese society, only greed is and as these elderly will only cost their children money their children won't care. This is not something new but a fundamental part of the Chinese culture.

[ratonnewmex]

WOW, can you say "sounds like America"?....

[lastnymleft]

HAARP - The gift that keeps on giving.

[teemuruskeepaa]

I didn't use voice to know that this video is agenda setting. Again, the picture of suffering is supposed to define what we regard as good life and the forces that come to the rescue of that. This is mind wash propaganda.

[oolong2]

I don't agree. I view slanted news every day and this is a far from the "propoganda" you would normally see.

With your logic, you can accuse anyone that depicts sufferring with a propoganda agenda.

Would you rather live in a world where sufferring is filtered from the media? This is what we have in the west.

That is a much better example of brain washing as it keeps the populace placated and unaware of the real impact a country's policies have domestically and around the world.

[teemuruskeepaa]

Yes I do accuse them. They are showing suffering as a pretext of benefiting the conglomeration, which in turn reports what the economic elite or the political apparatus tells them. We already know they suffer. There was a Tsunami!! Repeating that can only have extra agendas. I want to end the mass media all together, because it prevents the individual ability to learn and decide. It conditionalizes us to think its them who have authority over aid and rescue (and reconstruction)

[oolong2]

I dissagree that what you are saying applies to *this* story or to AlJazeera English.

I do agree that there are media outlets who push an agenda, although most are profit driven which is probably a BIGGER problem.

Repeating a story is typical in news, some people don't get the story the first or second time around. I know people who still don't realize there was a tsunami or earthquake...

However in this case it was about the elderly. IMO a legitimate sub-story to the tragedy.

[teemuruskeepaa]

The profit applies to all news stations and that's why they must accept biased sources. Their sources are biased, not themselves. Repeat of a story is not done to 'have everybody hear it'. The repeating is meant to attach wanted moral emphasis on the story and all official responses. Any sub-story is intentional repetition to justify the meant authoritarian response and the fact that we as the audience can't affect the situation. They play us out of it by showing authorities or needs for them

[oolong2]

Stories have been repeated in news since it was first scribbled on cave walls. It's not a new phenomena.

Furthermore it's not wise to speak in generalities and attribute all repeats in all forms to one cause... That's a bit crazy.

A story will be repeated as long as it sells. It will not be repeated when people no longer care about it. That's the motivation behind profit driven news.

It's simply not credible to attribute EVERY repeat to some grand conspiracy of the elite.

[teemuruskeepaa]

You sound desperate. Do you want to win me? Repetition is meant as a propaganda, which makes the public think in a wanted way. The message which comes through the faceless repetition machine, mass media, is that all things on Earth fall under 'our' jurisdiction'. Mass media is an arm of the nation state and its upper class rulers, and it exists only as long. Direct democratic political system wouldn't have one-way news casting but a library open for voluntary gaze.

[dshawk128]

The only sources in this story are the elderly people themselves. Do you think they're biased?

Stories are repeated on 24-hour news networks because, well, 24 hours is a lot of time to fill and if a story only ran once, most viewers would't get to see it.

[teemuruskeepaa]

I don't think so. The elders walk in the film in the context of the mythical hero of the nation state, who will, according to your innocent news organization, organize and execute aid. That's not the true picture of any individual Chinese nor the purpose of the news organization. Mass media is not an innocent and noble institution, like you believe, trying to let you know everything, but a bureaucratic one purpose machine which maintains status quo according to what it is fed in values of elite

[dshawk128]

Boy, you're way over thinking this. It's just a story about old people who were affected by the earthquake. No hidden agenda. Honest.

[teemuruskeepaa]

No, everything is political. It is not measured in the news value, how significant it is in making every ordinary citizen to think that the state helps people and it's hierarchic structure is needed in place by you, to make you feel safe for yourself and for everyone else the state manages to reach even outside it's borders. You are the product of television - you believe you need what you see on TV. And you have never any way of telling what you want to see 24 h a day. This is not even new.

[teemuruskeepaa]

Correction, the tsunami was in Myanmar and the earthquake was in China. But the media is doing the same darn thing.

[lastnymleft]

This is not just "suffering-porn". I think this is an appropriate angle to be shown as an independent news story. I had not considered, and had no idea, such "elderly orphans" existed, or why. I find the answer very interesting.

Not EVERYTHING'S a conspiracy, you know.

That said, HAARP did it!

[teemuruskeepaa]

No, it can't be described as porn. Porn is consequenceless hedonist rebellion against the norms. It is not independent, because there are the same damn editors of a big news organization, with a hegemony. Its the same group of people who interpret and repeat their interpretation as a duty to their own economical and political owners. They aren't even aware of it, because they are just doing their job, the role of a reporter. Sure, its a new story, but it is in the context of the older propaganda

[ratonnewmex]

Got that right....the U.S.....the world's filthiest TOILET

[dshawk128]

What "agenda" do you think I'm pushing? It's just a story about elderly people who are more-or-less alone because of the earthquake. A lot of attention has been paid to the children made orphans. I thought a story about "elderly orphans," would be interesting, especially because of the traditional reverence of the elderly in China and their reliance on family.

[teemuruskeepaa]

This discussion has become one where you all try to flame me. Next I should make a video response where I repeat all I've written here. You feel that written text on the internet is not to be taken seriously. That's the role of anonymity which I'm trying to destroy.

[dshawk128]

I didn't flame you. And if I didn't take you seriously, I wouldn't have responded.

Regards,

David Hawkins