The wolf is right. The sheep is right too.
Dinner time at my house usually consists of us having some sort of news on in the background. Most of the time CCTV. The notoriety of the channel is well known as being the only major news channel that feeds information to 1.3 billion people daily. It is universal knowledge that the channel, like other news channels carries bias when delivering world news.
But today, something caught my eye. The story is about the 8 Chinese officials and soldiers who died in the earthquake in Haiti. What surprised me was that, the story focused just as much about the top officials who are leading china right now as the victims of the earthquake. In a 5 minute news story, the chairman, premier and each of the official who came to mourn was mentioned just as much, maybe even more than the names of those who died.
After working as a photo journalist for 3 years, I found this to be ridiculous. I can only assumed that the reporters HAVE to have a premier chinese leader in every shot because if I were sent to cover a story about the people who died in Haiti, I would’ve at least interviewed the surviving family. But nothing was covered, instead, we see in painful detail, each chinese leader shaking hands with a line of grieving family members who has obvious been standing in the funeral home waiting for these old men to show up.
Upon hearing my indignation, my mom calmly replies that this situation makes perfect sense to her. I asked her how she could possibly think that the chinese government is right in this respect. She then tells me that, of course, the point of the story was never “8 chinese workers died in haiti”. The point was always “top chinese officials show compassion and sympathy when 8 chinese workers died in haiti”.
I don’t know where I get an insatiable sense of self-righteousness. But as my mother reminds me, often times, there are no right or wrong in the world. If there is anything i’ve learned from being a bio major, it is that from the sheep’s perspective the wolf may be evil but from the wolf’s perspective, the bloke’s gotta eat.
I am not sure if this revelation is considered a moral enlightenment. I feel as though it is some sort of moral depravity to admit that the murderer might be correct in his own sense too. I’m sure that next year, when I’m memorizing all the muscles in the human body, I won’t have time to ponder things like this.
But wait, I’m going to be a doctor, shouldn’t I already have some sort of morals? Oh dear.....
But today, something caught my eye. The story is about the 8 Chinese officials and soldiers who died in the earthquake in Haiti. What surprised me was that, the story focused just as much about the top officials who are leading china right now as the victims of the earthquake. In a 5 minute news story, the chairman, premier and each of the official who came to mourn was mentioned just as much, maybe even more than the names of those who died.
After working as a photo journalist for 3 years, I found this to be ridiculous. I can only assumed that the reporters HAVE to have a premier chinese leader in every shot because if I were sent to cover a story about the people who died in Haiti, I would’ve at least interviewed the surviving family. But nothing was covered, instead, we see in painful detail, each chinese leader shaking hands with a line of grieving family members who has obvious been standing in the funeral home waiting for these old men to show up.
Upon hearing my indignation, my mom calmly replies that this situation makes perfect sense to her. I asked her how she could possibly think that the chinese government is right in this respect. She then tells me that, of course, the point of the story was never “8 chinese workers died in haiti”. The point was always “top chinese officials show compassion and sympathy when 8 chinese workers died in haiti”.
I don’t know where I get an insatiable sense of self-righteousness. But as my mother reminds me, often times, there are no right or wrong in the world. If there is anything i’ve learned from being a bio major, it is that from the sheep’s perspective the wolf may be evil but from the wolf’s perspective, the bloke’s gotta eat.
I am not sure if this revelation is considered a moral enlightenment. I feel as though it is some sort of moral depravity to admit that the murderer might be correct in his own sense too. I’m sure that next year, when I’m memorizing all the muscles in the human body, I won’t have time to ponder things like this.
But wait, I’m going to be a doctor, shouldn’t I already have some sort of morals? Oh dear.....