The number of comments posted on The Guardian’s Newsblog in a variety of issues might indicate the inclination of the English-speaking western mind. The following is a list of the topics found on a single page and the number of comments that each had attracted.

The heading are listed in the same order as in the original site with the most recent news articles superseding, in order, those posted earlier. In other words, those lower down in the list has had a greater life span on the page.

The comments number included was extracted at approximately 8am British time, Tues 18th Oct, 2005.

Looks like Kermit the Frog is still leaps ahead in significance compared to the Earthquake victims.

In contrast to Katrina, which was blessed with longevity on the Technorati Directory under ‘top searches’ for more than couple of weeks, the ‘Asian Earthquake’ and ‘Earthquake’ managed an oftentimes tenuous presence for only a few days. The first directory page of Katrina articles in those weeks generally listed only the first hour of articles as they were flowing in continuously.

As of the time of this article, this site’s previous article, ‘When Death Tolls but the Bell Doth Not’, released 2 days ago on the ‘Earthquake’, still, unfortunately, is on the first page of the directory listing articles tagged ‘earthquake’. The said page also lists 4 days worth of articles on the said event. The tag, ‘Asian Earthquake’, reveals no articles; ‘Pakistan Earthquake’ reveals a first page with 9 days of articles; ‘Asia Earthquake’ displays 1 article; ‘India Earthquake’ nill, and ‘Kashmir Earthquake’ has a first page with 9 days of posts. With regards to the floods in Guatemala, both ‘Guatemalan Floods’ and Guatemala Floods’ turned up no articles whilst 'Guatemala' has 6 days worth of article links with most of the posts pertaining to the floods.

Now the implications of the above, indeed, is that which comprises the real and recurring disaster whose toll, when put together, despite the illusion of the nation-states borders and sentiments emerging therefrom, is probably incalculable.

In the days of Katrina, one could expect a lifespan of not more than an hour for one’s article on the relevant first page in Technorati. One could argue that this is natural, considering the population of Americans OnLine, that there would be a slew of articles on the American Tragedy of ‘Biblical Proportions’(according to Newsweek). However, other than the learnt sentiment of ‘oneness’ with ‘one’s nation', there is no other reason why ‘Americans’ should be especially focused on ‘An American Tragedy’ when one American knows another American in another state as well as one living in Pakistan. The same thing applies in the area of ‘race’ where a ‘white man’ can just as easily have more in common with a ‘black man’ than one of 'her/is own’ when one considers the existence and reality of cross-cutting identities and experiences of significance. The truth is, there is nothing 'natural' about the current state of the nation. And even if one was to claim that the reality of existing patriotic sentiments are a basis upon which the naturalness of the nation-state may be asserted, the cost of this nurtured nature ought to inspire one to reconsider the future of this state of affairs.

‘Not by the colour of one’s skin but the content of one’s character’ exhorted Martin Luther King. ‘Not by one’s citizenship but one’s humanity’, say I, in view of this new ‘racism’ passing for patriotic nationalism.

It seems that we never eradicate evils, just use our opposition to its most blatant examples to exonerate its less obtrusive variants.

And whilst we are engaged in this enterprise, the death tolls climb unchecked as a result of the latter form of systemic bigotry than ever claimed by the systematic and more blatant former - the latest illustration of which can be seen in the EU ministers' statement that,



"..the spread of bird flu from Asia into Europe presented a 'global threat' requiring broad international cooperation".


This is not unlike the need being recognised for a 'Coalition of the Willing' and a 'War on Terror' when it was the west that was on the receiving end of a War on Terror. Was bird flu not a 'global threat' when it took 60 lives in Asia? Perhaps, if it was perceived as such, the birds in question might not have followed in the wake of the hordes of old in its attempt to dismantle Europe along with its fortress.


It seems that Hitler is alive and well in the virtues of our times.