What can we say about Benazir Bhutto? Her death, like all deaths, was tragic but for anyone who followed the affairs of Pakistan, it was not unexpected. The only reason we are talking about it now so much is because, like the Dundas Square shooting in 2005 or the Sri Lanka Tsnami of 2006, this event is 2007 Christmas-New Years tragedy of the year — a period of time where almost nothing else is going on and when a story-depraved media mob will cling onto anything they can report on. Conspiracy theorists might even go as far as to suggest that these annual events are being orchestrated for such purposes.
There has been a great deal of commentary over the past two days though that suggest that Mrs. Bhutto’s death will produce more positives than negatives domestically. Internationally, I hope this would be the case too. The spotlight on the ex-Prime Minister’s life is revealing that she is just the best of a really, really bad bunch and that the problems of the Arab world are going to be long and difficult in solving. Maybe once we begin to understand this, and that there are no good guys among the political leaders of a place like Pakistan, only then will our society begin to defuse the threat that such nations pose to our peace and prosperity.
Raphael Alexander wrote:
You attribute the media attention to “a story-depraved media mob will cling onto anything they can report on”? A major international leader was assassinated. Of course it’s going to be big news, regardless of the time of year.
Posted on 30-Dec-07 at 10:49 am | Permalink
ruralrenegade wrote:
It’s hardly orchestrated and timed for the end of the year when Bhutto was in the most vulnerable position of riding through a street like that giving anyone with a weapon of any sort the opportunity to assassinate her. She has been a target since she set foot on Pakistani soil. House arrest protected her temporarily. It’s just way too cynical to suggest that this was nothing more than a photo-op for the media.
Posted on 30-Dec-07 at 2:38 pm | Permalink
Matthew wrote:
The comment was speculative, although I should clarify that I certainly don’t endorse it myself. I do doubt though that this story would be getting the airplay it is (front page headlines on consecutive days; continuing obituaries) if it happened three weeks prior to or three weeks after the Christmas break.
Posted on 30-Dec-07 at 3:04 pm | Permalink
Smarter than Ezra wrote:
“The comment was speculative, although I should clarify that I certainly don’t endorse it myself.”
WTF? So then what is your point Matthew. If you didn’t mean what you wrote, then what did you mean, because, frankly, I don’t get it.
Posted on 31-Dec-07 at 1:48 pm | Permalink
Matthew wrote:
My point is that this story wouldn’t have mattered as much if it happened during a routine part of the year; I’ll repeat again though that I do not personally believe that the media had it out for this lady.
Posted on 31-Dec-07 at 1:59 pm | Permalink
Smarter than Ezra wrote:
So then, to maximize media exposure, the tsunami in 2004 couldn’t have happened at a better time, right?
I think you need to revisit your thesis on this one, Matthew.
Posted on 31-Dec-07 at 2:09 pm | Permalink
Matthew wrote:
You’re more than welcome to explain your reasoning…
Posted on 31-Dec-07 at 2:15 pm | Permalink
dalton wrote:
The “problems of the Arab world”?
Ummm….are you under the impression that Pakistanis are Arabs?
Posted on 31-Dec-07 at 2:59 pm | Permalink
Smarter than Ezra wrote:
I don’t think it really bears explaining, since I am not the one who wrote a post saying that there is nothing news worthy going on in the world and that is why the media jumped on a story that could in fact have a profound effect on politics in the middle east. That shoe, my friend, is for you to explain.
Now for nothing going on in Canada, one could point to the 1% GST reduction, as NOTHING for the average Canadian. Or that the Prime Minister reannounced this reduction - yawn. Could the $9 per paycheque that we will be getting in tax savings in the coming year, which really will ammount to NOTHING for anyone, capture our imagination the way, say, the further destruction of stability in the Middle East does given our troops on that part of the planet?
However, to claim that there is nothing going on in the rest of the world is pretty lame. Or is this just another attempt at deflecting our attention that your political buddies are the ones who are in fact doing nothing… and as a concequence have nothing to announce come a probable election in the spring?
Posted on 31-Dec-07 at 5:54 pm | Permalink
Matthew wrote:
“Or is this just another attempt at deflecting our attention that your political buddies are the ones who are in fact doing nothing… and as a concequence have nothing to announce come a probable election in the spring?”
Now who’s making up conspiracy theories?
Posted on 31-Dec-07 at 7:37 pm | Permalink
Smarter than Ezra wrote:
Another great deflection… sweet.
Posted on 31-Dec-07 at 8:25 pm | Permalink
Ryan wrote:
Matthew - hit the reset button on your post. Bhutto’s death on any day of the year would have been huge news - just as everything else she did for the last few months was huge news. Issues in Pakistan are not Arab issues (get a map), and I am wondering if you could be any more vague on what you see as the threat to our peace and prosperity. What are you trying to say?
Posted on 01-Jan-08 at 9:45 pm | Permalink
Matthew wrote:
Ryan - There’s no way either of us can imperially prove how this story would’ve hit the news media in October vs the Christmas break but I have laid out my reasoning above for my arguments. Before you jump the gun though, you might want to inquire into what I meant by “problems of the Arab world”; many a commentator has suggested that Pakistan, like other non-Arab nations in that region (and even some EU ones now) are being affected by an Arab-Sunni influence — this viewpoint is both one that you should be familiar with if you read even the mainline Canadian columnists and one that I condone personally. Please re-read my post with that in mind. Also, seeing as my post was mainly on how the death of the PPP leader was treated last week, I will save the threat to our peace and prosperity commentary to another time when I see fit to write about that topic.
Posted on 01-Jan-08 at 10:57 pm | Permalink
Charles Anthony wrote:
Speaking of how the death of Bhutto has been treated in Pakistan, what I find very telling in Pakistan is the peculiar evolution of democracy. They are bumbling along the way. The head of the Bhutto clan is now arguing that Benazir Bhutto’s son does not deserve to be the party successor. One of Benazir’s cousins should get it first!
The leaders (or candidates) still seem to be chosen along family or clan lines. The Pakistani people seem to accept that as normal. Incidentally, the Russians seem to be comfortable with that sort of thing too. Contrast this with most other Western democracies whereby citizens really have no guess who will be the future leaders.
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Now for some more mud slinging:
Matt,
You really are grasping at straws by suggesting that the events in Pakistan are only getting media hype because of the Christmas season.
Posted on 02-Jan-08 at 7:56 am | Permalink