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| Photograph courtesy of The Telegraph |
The Telegraph newspaper in the UK had an eye-opening article about three days ago, detailing Vice President Joe Biden's wife Jill and her trip to Somalia, trying to increase US publicity on the famine there. While maintaining an objective tone throughout the piece, the article did a good job of pointing out some of the ironies in the situation.
"Watching the wife of the US vice-president touring the world's biggest refugee camp for famine-hit Somalis was a scrum of television cameramen, international reporters and Washington Staffers thumbing their Blackberrys....
"Parked off to the side, waiting to whisk the visitors back to the airport, was a convoy of 29 polished vehicles, including armoured US embassy Land Cruisers driven the eight hours up from Nairobi the day before."
I was struck by the mental image: Protective guards and 29 SUVs, dozens of Blackberrys and video cameras all clamoring around this aid camp full of refugees dying of hunger and thirst.
"All this is a necessary evil," said one senior aid worker quoted by the paper.
But is it really? While it appears the U.S. media is finally starting to give this humanitarian disaster the coverage it deserves, I don't necessarily think it had anything to do with Jill Biden's publicity trip. An ABC spokesman said on Aug. 5 that the story was overshadowed until now by the debt debate in Washington.
As networks are devoting more time and energy to the famine, considered one of the worst humanitarian disasters in decades, it appears most reports mention Biden's visit only in passing. In fact according to The New York Times' blog article Networks Step Up Coverage in Famine Zones by Brian Stelter, news networks are now bickering over who started paying attention to the crisis first.
From the Times blog: "When Mr. (David) Muir came back to the United States last week, he reminded viewers on “World News” that ABC had been “the first network to report from Kenya,” and he described an “overwhelming” response.
"Implicitly rebuffing ABC, NBC said in a news release last week that it had paid “careful attention” to the crisis, citing reports by Rohit Kachroo, a reporter who is jointly employed in Africa by NBC and the British network ITV."
Give me a break. What is most important in all this is the awareness given to the American public about the dire situation and how people can help- it is not making sure your network gets proper credit for spreading said awareness.
And this is where I believe Biden's intentions were honorable- at least she was trying to use her celebrity to bring deserved attention to the crisis.
The question is whether she did so in the most proper and efficient manner.
Think about the preparation involved, and the energy wasted, and the security details needed to carry out this trip. As the Telegraph article accurately pointed out, the trip appeared to be just another strain on the already over-stretched aid workers, who had to spend two whole days preparing for the visit.
"Advance teams of special forces troops and secret service agents demanded full dress rehearsals and extended security sweeps.... Refugees at the reception centre, including Fatuma Adem, the mother of four children filmed talking with Mrs. Biden, were readied in advance."
Considering this area of Somalia is controlled by violent extremists, I am not denouncing the need for such security measures. But maybe Mrs. Biden should have looked at all this and thought- "there is a better way to raise awareness, and a better way to help these people."
Without the circus.
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