The Nepal earthquake and news that matters

The statistics and photos coming out of Nepal today are shocking.  The Himalayan country experienced a 7.8 magnitude earthquake earlier today and at the present time (21:13 Eastern) at least 1,800 people are dead.  The quake triggered a landslide on Mount Everest that also killed several climbers.  The quake also caused deaths in neighbouring India and Bangladesh.  The Canadian Armed Forces is sending its DART (Disaster Assistance Response Team) to help with relief and recovery efforts.  The Department of Foreign Affairs is also attempting to assist the 388 Canadian citizens it was aware of who were in Nepal when the earthquake struck.

When a major natural disaster strikes, it is serious news.  The fact that Nepal is also a developing country with a history of civil instability makes the news even more serious.  Natural disasters and civil unrest are very unfortunate things.  They are also sadly the kind of thing that in the contemporary news business often get secondary attention to to say--a 65 year old former Olympic decathlete who has decided to transition from a man into a woman after decades of capitalizing excessively off of his now nearly forgotten reason for becoming a celebrity in the first place.  Bruce Jenner won the gold medal for the US in decathlon at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.  Most followers of his current story of switching which restroom he uses were likely not even born then.  The event predates my own birth by nearly three years.  I only remember Jenner as a frequent celebrity pitchman (pitcher?) throughout the 1980's.  Jenner's omnipresence in the commercial world, along with his many appearances on various television series was market saturation other TV peddlers of peculiar products like Ron Popeil of Ronco, and Suzanne Somers with her Thighmaster must have envied.  The current generation of Jenner followers likely only associate him with his most recent affiliation with the Kardashians, a family whose rise to fame still mystifies me.  Although there is arguably a dimension of activism and social justice behind Bruce's switcheroo, it still does not come across as something with a particularly high level of intellect and urgency.  If he/she did not have the Kardashian connection and long ago achievement in the Olympics, Jenner would be just another transgender senior citizen doing what many others have already done.  Jenner's continuous milking of the publicity machine over the past 39 years along with his most recent marriage into the plastic Kardashian family makes the story better fodder for supermarket tabloids than mainstream news and current affairs.  Friday evening's big one-on-one interview between Diane Sawyer and Jenner was the top story yesterday and into the early hours of today.  How sad it is when tabloid fodder takes up prime time on a major television network and also makes the top headlines in all other forms of media!  What is sadder though is that it took a devastating earthquake and the death of nearly 2,000 people to knock it into the second story on the front pages and television newscasts.

Pray for the victims of the Nepal earthquake, their families, and for the recovery efforts.  Give to relief organizations assisting with the disaster response if you are able to.