{"id":3565,"date":"2012-11-02T22:38:55","date_gmt":"2012-11-02T22:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.internationaldiplomat.com\/?p=16"},"modified":"2012-11-02T22:38:55","modified_gmt":"2012-11-02T22:38:55","slug":"hardly-ever-watch-news-tv-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/?p=3565","title":{"rendered":"I hardly ever watch the news on TV anymore"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\u201cI hardly ever watch the news on TV anymore,\u201d my colleague said the other day. \u201cAll you hear about is killings, wars, crimes \u2026 I\u2019m tired of sad and depressing news.\u201d It may be a general trend, because the same phenomenon has been observed in France, where one of the comedy shows, Scenes de m\u00e9nage<\/i>, on the TV channel M6 has higher audience ratings than the 8 o\u2019clock evening news.
\nMy colleague continues\u00a0: \u201cEvery day I get hundreds of emails, many of them coming from NGOs, development organizations and aid associations and often requesting increased funding for this or that crisis. However, what I do not like,\u201d he said, \u201cis always this negativity in the messages\u00a0: \u2018there is not enough funding\u2019\u00a0; \u2018national governments do not do enough\u2019, etc. Would it not be nicer sometimes to hear about a glass half-full instead of always hearing about the glass half-empty\u00a0? There are many ways to present an issue, and it would be nice to read something a little more positive, at least sometimes.\u201d
\nYes, we all know that the world is in crisis, that multilateralism is almost non-existent, that we will have our backs to the wall if something is not being done to reshape our world and make it better for everybody. True, there are humanitarian disasters and natural catastrophes and ruthless dictators that murder their own people. Villages and towns may be attacked, the people massacred, the children abducted the women raped, but eventually (after distressing delays) the international community reacts. It may take time, but these problems eventually make it on to the international agenda. The media are alerted. Politicians are made to face their responsibilities. Money is found. And the situation improves\u00a0: people return home, the guilty ones are caught, killed or flee and, who knows, the situation may be even better than before.
\nHow come, better than before\u00a0? Communities who have been chased from their homes by armed conflict may eventually reach \u201crock bottom\u201d, that is to say they find themselves lost and alone in the wilderness with no food, no shelter and very little hope. But it is a tribute to human ingenuity that sometimes these communities have turned deficiency into advantage. Through pure necessity the whole community has formed a single body to build shelters, clear the land, plant crops, open a medical centre, find teachers and start a school. There are even cases where, after a few months, they have been sufficiently strong to refuse the help of international aid agencies. They have decided that they have confidence in nobody but themselves\u2014and who can blame them\u00a0? When they return to their homeland, they are strong, self-sufficient and, dare I say it, wiser. Their glass is half-full.
\nOn these positive notes we wish you all a wonderful day John and Marit<\/i>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI hardly ever watch the news on TV anymore,\u201d my colleague said the other day. \u201cAll you hear about is killings, wars, crimes \u2026 I\u2019m tired of sad and depressing news.\u201d It may be a general trend, because the same phenomenon has been observed in France, where one of the comedy shows, Scenes de m\u00e9nage,
+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,539],"tags":[2674,3916,3931],"class_list":["post-3565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","category-english","tag-crisis","tag-negativity","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12h71.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}