Death toll in Haiti.

[welkram]

I'm aware of this disaster, but perhaps not well aware, maybe the worst is yet to come. I do however recall a time when professional journalists didn't just pluck a figure out of the air and then try to convince us that this was the correct death toll. Back in the day when any disaster happened the causality figure started low and then rose, we now seem to start at some unbelievably high figure and then grudgingly reduce it down.

When news of this disaster first appeared we were told by the BBC that "thousands were feared dead". That figure hung around for a few days untill on Tuesday all the tabloids ran with the story that 500,000 had died, I don't have Sky or watch Sky News but do wonder if that was where the Sun got its figures from. On Thursday the Telegraph suggested the dead could be up to 50,000 and they are still suggesting today that's still the correct figure. The paper also reports that 43,000 may have been buried in mass graves, that ammount of people takes a lot of big holes, and with no infrastructure and little co-ordination who would have dug the holes, and with the mass of journalists now scurrying around the country looking for scoops and personal stories its doubtfull it could have happened with out it being filmed.

Not for one minute am I rubbishing this disaster, as I said 'perhaps the worse is still to come', but I think we should all read a little between the lines.

Regardless of that I have already made my donation to the relief fund.

[one eyed jack]

I hear you and I feel the same and I think this is largely because Haiti is closed off from the rest of the world that any tid bit of news getting out came through by way of Skypes and instant messaging and what not. They measured the quake as 7 on the Richter scale and deduced a figure.

Its a crying shame the suffering that is going on in that country right now. Whatever the official figures are its still distresssing to see family members wailing in grief and crushed and left for fead for days.

It will be sometime before we ever know a true figure and end then we may never know

[planeterotica]

My feelings are with the people of Haiti after a disaster of this magnitude, and to think that just a few days ago we here in the UK were moaning about a bit of snow.

[number 6]

The scale of this disaster seems to get bigger everyday. Tragic to witness.