the invisibility of disaster

I'd read about the torrential rain in Cusco (and other regions in Peru) this year from the Peruvian blogs that I follow, but it only made international news when the tourists got trapped in Machu Picchu/Aguas Calientes after the Urubamba river swelled up and cut off the railroad tracks, forcing the government into helicoptering them back to Cusco. What never seemed to make the news is the ruined lives of the indigenous who live in pueblitos in the mountains, whose house have been destroyed, whose little stock of food has been swept away.

fucked up priority

every one's been talking about it: the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. An economics illiterate, i cannot comment. Let's just assume that this in the long run is better for tax payers. It's taking some money away from them, true, but the other scenario would be much worse. So the government is just choosing the lesser evil. Let's agree on that.
But what about all the public schools, healthcare system, pollution, ok, nothing new, they're all so old, but they're not worth rescuing?

sanity

What to read after the Times of India, DNA, Express, after Reuters, AP, after bomb blasts, and floods, and bankruptcy?
Vie de Merde
Overheard in New York