Hmmm, can we please acknowledge it as a red herring issue and move on to more important concerns?
One of the front page news stories this past week was the botched photo editing job on the photograph released of Kate Middleton and her children. Kill notices, a relative rarity, and retraction alerts were issued by the world’s biggest news agencies once the photo editing was noticed. Apologies followed from the royal family which extended the life of the story.
Whether the editing was done by Kate Middleton herself or royal family staff, and whether it was well intentioned or a manipulation, are irrelevant to me. My question is: Why was it front page news at all? A minor lapse in judgement by the royal family is hardly our biggest concern these days in light of what is happening around the world. A few examples:
The Israel – Gaza War in which reportedly 31,000+ have been killed, 73,000+ injured and 8,000 gone missing. More than a million people are homeless and starving. On the Israeli side, reportedly 1,100 have been killed. Please understand that I am not taking one side or the other in the conflict. It is the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that wrenches my heart.
The Russian invasion of the Ukraine which is into its third year. The invasion has become the largest attack on a European country since World War II. Ukrainian civilian casualties are in the tens of thousands with hundreds of thousands of military casualties. Eight million Ukrainians have been internally displaced and more than eight million have fled the country.
The political crisis in Haiti, one of the poorest countries on earth, which has the small country on the brink of collapse. Armed gangs, violence and looting have made everyday life desperate in this nation of 11 million. The resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry plunged the country into further chaos.
The homelessness crisis in this country and around the world. 25,000 to 35,000 people are homeless in any given night in Canada. Here in the Hamilton alone there are over 1,600 people who are homeless. Encampments in parks and wooded areas have become all too commonplace as these people struggle to survive from day to day.
I do understand that Kate Middleton underwent abdominal surgery and that there is concern about her health. But the botched photo editing job is a giant red herring in the world context. The fact that it occupied a place in the news, and competed for headlines and readership with the desperate situations outline above, is a sad commentary on the state of affairs.
Let us please collectively issue a kill notice on that story and turn our concerns to the dire circumstances of so many people less fortunate than us and far less fortunate than the royal family. The photo of Kate Middleton and her children will be forgotten in a few weeks. The desperate circumstances of people struggling to survive each passing day will resonate for decades to come.
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Tags: botched photo editing · Kate Middleton · kill notice · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · royal familyNo Comments