Het Nederlands Provincialisme

Het verschil tussen de provinciale pers en cosmopolitische kwaliteitskranten: de landelijke Nederlandse dagbladen openen allen met de storm van gisteren. Ondanks het feit dat de storm grotere schade en meer doden heeft veroorzaakt in Groot Brittannie opent daarentegen de Independent met internationaal nieuws. De Nederlandse kranten voegen niets toe aan wat de lezer al wist over de storm, uit eigen ervaring of via de televisie en radio, de Independent komt wel met nieuws. Gisteren verscheen in Nederland ook het rapport 'Staat van het Klimaat' zie: http://stanvanhoucke.blogspot.com/2007/01/klimaatverandering-78.html Daarin wordt gewaarschuwd voor de ingrijpende gevolgen van de klimaatverandering voor ons land. Interessant is dat alleen het NOS-Journaal hier aandacht aan besteeddde en niet de andere commerciele massamedia, niet de kranten en ook niet het achtergrondprogramma NOVA dat zijn hele uitzending aan de storm had gewijd. Hoe is dat provincialisme in Nederland toch te verklaren?

De Independent:

'The battle to save Iraq's children.
Doctors issue plea to Tony Blair to end the scandal of medical shortages in the war zone.
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
Published: 19 January 2007

The desperate plight of children who are dying in Iraqi hospitals for the lack of simple equipment that in some cases can cost as little as 95p is revealed today in a letter signed by nearly 100 eminent doctors.
They are backed by a group of international lawyers, who say the conditions in hospitals revealed in their letter amount to a breach of the Geneva conventions that require Britain and the US as occupying forces to protect human life.
In a direct appeal to Tony Blair, the doctors describe desperate shortages causing "hundreds" of children to die in hospitals. The signatories include Iraqi doctors, British doctors who have worked in Iraqi hospitals, and leading UK consultants and GPs.
"Sick or injured children who could otherwise be treated by simple means are left to die in hundreds because they do not have access to basic medicines or other resources," the doctors say. "Children who have lost hands, feet and limbs are left without prostheses. Children with grave psychological distress are left untreated," they add.
They say babies are being ventilated with a plastic tube in their noses and dying for want of an oxygen mask, while other babies are dying because of the lack of a phial of vitamin K or sterile needles, all costing about 95p. Hospitals have little hope of stopping fatal infections spreading from baby to baby because of the lack of surgical gloves, which cost about 3.5p a pair.
Among those who have signed the letter are Chris Burns-Cox, a consultant physician at Gloucester Royal Hospital; Dr Maggie Wright, the director of intensive care at James Page University Hospital; Professor Debbie Lawlor, professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London; Professor George Davey Smith, professor of clinical epidemiology at Bristol university; Dr Philip Wilson, senior clinical research fellow at Glasgow University; and Dr Heba al-Naseri, who has experienced the conditions in Iraqi hospitals. Dr al-Naseri, who has worked at Diwaniyah Maternity Hospital and the Diwaniyah University Hospital, describes in harrowing detail what the conditions were like for a newborn baby - one of the lucky ones who survived - called Amin.
"Amin had to be fed powdered milk, diluted with tap water. There wasn't enough money to buy expensive formula milk or bottled water - their price had risen above the increase in wages since 2003. The problems with the intermittent electricity and gas supply meant regular boiled water could not be guaranteed. With the dormant waste and sewage disposal systems, drinking-water is more likely to be contaminated," he said.
Cases the doctors highlight include a child who died because the doctor only had a sterile needle for an adult and could not find a needle small enough to fit the vein, and another child who died because the doctors had no oxygen mask that fitted.'

Lees verder: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2165470.ece