27 June 2011

2 Hours 9 Minutes

[A Jenial Muchas Gracias to Janine-Mendes Franco for highlighting My "C-Section Gets An F" post in Global Voices Online.]


Opened a slew of bookmarks, not noticing one of them was for local puppy trainer rag Primer Hora. Paused a second before closing it...and saw the following headlines:

--Grandfather and granddaughter killed in Río Piedras.
--Man coming home shot several times in Carolina.
--Elderly man commits suicide in Naguabo.
--Man beaten severely in Ponce.
--Young man shot and killed while driving in Las Piedras.
--Man wounded by bullet in Cidra.
--Man shot and killed in San Juan.
--Man killed in Santurce.

The last headline went up at 6:40 AM. The top one, about the grandfather and granddaughter, went up at 8:49 AM.

At least 6 violent deaths and three horrible woundings reported in 2 hours and 9 minutes.

Two hours. And nine minutes. An average of almost 3 deaths an hour and one seriously wounded in the same timespan.  A geographic span from southern city and central-eastern towns to northeastern city and capital midtown.

Yes, the media believes in "If it bleeds, it leads." The Universe knows We have a crime problem like a bowling ball-sized tumor in Our chest, fueled by a myriad of problems that The Larva We have for (non)governor and similarly-positioned feebs can't even begin to give a damn about.

It bears repeating: We had over 1,000 murders last year and We're plunging towards more than 1,100 this year. Instead of stopping the bleeding, Our witless excuse for a government would rather shove a 93-mile pipe up Our...mountains, and across the north coast. Because, really, they can't make much more money off of these killings, so the bottom line needs to be focused on someplace else.

Six deaths, one a child, and three people wounded. Two hours and nine minutes of another Monday that shouldn't be on My Island.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Yeah, the government is retarded but... what about the responsibility of the media? I mean, bombarding us constantly with all this blood and gore is probably worsening our collective psyche. That has to have an effect. IAll the news of deaths or Maripily are not helping any. Especially when they could be doing dozens of articles and exposés on things like what Gurabo's mayor is doing to the UPR. The government is stealing primo agricultural research facilities and terrains to plant even more concrete and that only gets passing mentions. Where the f#$ˆ@#$ are our crussading journalists?

GCSchmidt said...

Gabo, you're absolutely right. It's the media that keeps the "death tally" alive, almost with glee. The media sensationaizes, without any effort to "inform" beyond the level of gossip.

As for the Gurabo mayor, the media ignores him and his theft because it is a "dull" story: no blood, no sex, no violence and it's about "agricultural research"?! Holy Hannah, We don't care about agriculture and We have NO idea what research is, so why bother?

That's where the media fails Us: in telling Us what We NEED to know. To the meida, what We need is blood, death, crime (street-level, not white collar), innuendo, gossip and crap. It's why a shit-for-brains asshole like Antulio Santarrosa can stay on the air for over a decade with the highest-rated TV show: he's nothing more than a gossip whore. (My apologies to all other whores.) And We "support" him because gossip takes NO brains to "figure out": it rewards the lazy mind with a quick jolt of false "I am better that that" feelings, the crack of stunted minds, hearts and genitalia.

If someone gets killed on the Gurabo research farm, with the words "Fuck Fortuño" carved on his/her forehead, you can rest assured the media will be all over it like shit on flies. (I wrote that correctly, as you shall see.) All over it until some retarded silicone meatbag yaps about something irrelevant or several other bodies appear in morgues. On My Island, the shit flies...without a clue.

Ms. Conciencia said...

What's going on with my country's, mind? Damn, seeing all these things, and then your analysis makes me want to puke. I will love to throw this Government out right now! I can't stand it!! And then, they have bought a lot of huge spaces on the local newspapers...and, without any doubt, in local TV , just to look nice...which it isn't nothing like that.

GCSchmidt said...

This isn't a triumph of style over substance, but the manipulation of lies over tragedy. It sickens many of Us, but apparently not enough to overthrow the government, peacefully or otherwise.