Catastrophic Disparities

Chile Vs. Haiti

I know that Chile is a much bigger quake than Haiti but according to the media, Haiti wins the attention! They’re pointing our attention to a much less severe earthquake. The picture illustrates the media’s perception that is reflected upon the majority of the world. However, reality states a rather different view; the Chile quake was actually much more severe than the one that occurred in Haiti. But somehow all our attention is pointed towards Haiti and the aftermath that the earthquake brought along. Currently a very few people are concerned with the death toll and the aftermath disasters that the 8.8 earthquake brought along to Chile. In fact people are more concerned about the earthquake’s aftermath regarding the shift of the earth’s axis or whatever.  Media, media, media you attention-grabbing slithery sly poisonous snake, with the poison you inject you’ve got the whole publics’ attention, don't you?

From Paris with a Bias

Please note that the following entry contains spoilers.
I am quite sure that a several of you guys have watched the movie From Paris with Love. I personally liked the movie and John Travolta was hilarious; I was cracking up the whole time. However, it conveyed a major misconception that people outside of the Middle East would view it as reality.

Basically the movie revolves around a team of two American operatives for the CIA, working in Paris. Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays the role of James Reece, a personal aide to the American Ambassador of Paris and an under-cover operative for the CIA. He had an ideal life in the city of romance with his French girlfriend up until he discovered the horrid truth. John Travolta plays the role of Charlie Wax, a special agent with a humorous, daring, and an upfront persona. Wax has been sent to Paris to partner up with James to stop a terrorist attack. During their quest to “stop all evil” and bring in peace, James confront a bunch of complications and emotional hindrance associated with his love life. He discovers that his French girlfriend is a Muslim terrorist and she was using him to arrange terrorist attacks. This was very devastating for him to bear. Wax seemed to have no emotions toward James’s emotional distress as evident in the following quote said by Wax “that happened to me once in Cairo and twice in Beirut”. In the preceding quote Wax was referring to the fact that among the Arab women he gave his heart to, in those two Middle Eastern cities, he eventually discovered their true identity, "undercover terrorists". They mentioned the name of those two Middle Eastern cities, in the preceding quote, with the aim of presenting the audience with the misconception that only Muslim women and/or women from the Middle East are terrorists.

I find that the interrogation of suicide bombers conveyed a major misunderstanding of Islam as well. The following is a quote said by a Muslim suicide bomber during her interrogation “I want to do this because my faith [Islam] requires me to do it”. So if I were an outsider that had no idea about Islam, besides the misconceptions the media present us with, I would digest this quote in a different manner unlike a person who is well-informed of Islam. Showing that a committed Muslim must become a suicide bomber was just bogus.

Another thing I found attention-grabbing was the various locations around Paris the movie covered. It showed both the beautiful, peaceful and romantic side of Paris and the “Parisian underworld” that most of us never saw in movies. I have been in Paris a couple of times and I never thought it had this whole criminal world. It was a new angle of Paris, for a certain audience. We, the audience, always saw Paris as the epitome of an idealistic place, whether it was in movies or novels it was all the same Paris we were used to.

The movie in general was pleasant to watch and it wasn’t the typical action/romantic movie. The ending was very much unexpected. For those of you who haven’t watched the movie I recommend you to watch.