As people who read my blog reglarly will know, I sometimes go off in a rant about things in Honduras because a lot of stuff that I see here and what I know about this country seem to make no sense and it can be quite frustrating. I’m afraid this post will be another rant, except not about Honduras today… about people from the Western world – yes that means you the US, UK, Europe. Obviously not everyone is basically stupid but some people are… particularly people who read the Daily Mail and choose to comment on things that they know nothing about.
Why I hate the Daily Mail and (some of) it’s readers…
A friend from Loughborough sent me this article today – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2316843/Horrific-collection-photos-grim-reality-life-San-Pedro-Sula-Honduras.html to show me how the UK is protraying the country I am living in. Don’t read it if you have a weak stomach; apparently the Daily Mail sees fit to copy the Honduran newspapers and show photos of dead bodies, people in pain and family members in mourning. Nice. I know the situation in SPS (San Pedro Sula) is bad – I happen to live 6 hours from there unlike the Daily Mail writers – but I’ve quickly learnt in Honduras that you can’t always rely on statistics. The article displays A LOT of pictures of injured people and dead bodies alongside statistics like ‘83.4per cent of homicides are by firearms’, ‘San Pedro Sula recorded 1,218 homicides in 2012 (a rate of 3.3 murders a day)’ and ‘149 civilians killed by police in the last two years’. I’m not saying that I would walk around SPS, or Tegus, without being cautious and I definitely wouldn’t walk around at night but you have to take these numbers in context, which the Daily Mail fails to do. I had a quick search on google ‘how many people are killed by knives each year in the uk´ and straight away had results like 130,000 knife attacks a year (Daily Mail of course), a knife attack every 4 minutes, 6 killed a week and 3500 murders a year from knives. If you read this and didn’t know which country it refered to, I’m pretty sure you would say you wouldn’t want to go there and you’d be imagining somewhere very far from the UK. But I for one feel pretty safe when I’m in the UK, including London which is where the majority of knife attacks happen. And I’ve never had one of my friends who live in London say they are worried about crime – which is one of the questions I’m asked often when talking about my life in Tegus. The Daily Mail has a tendency to dramatise things and pick out all of the worst statistics (and pictures) and present the horror that people face as though it is entertainment.
But it is not the Daily Mail that I am really angry at, it’s the people who choose to comment on these kind of articles. Not everyone, some people just mention their sympathy for those who are victims or say it makes them realise how lucky they are to have been born in a western country (which they are!!!). A couple of people even commented that it was hard to read but we need to know more about what is going on in the world that isn’t usually published (I love you!). But others feel the need to display their selfishness, stupidity and ignorance for all to see, here are a few of my favourites and why they’re so stupid:
“America – heed this warning… your 60% death rate by guns may soon match this !!” – of course, it’s not an issue that Honduras faces this every day, but we should be worried about its nearby RICH neighbour. Of course.
“Looks like just another day in Tower Hamlets.” – that’s just dumb.
“Its their problem, nothing we can do about it.” – I’m sure if you had had the bad luck to be born in a country like Honduras you would hope others would say this about you… I think not.
“IT’s all over South America and they are slowly bringing it over to Europe, as our lax emigration laws allow them to” – When was the last time you met a South American in Europe? I know I haven’t met many. Recently, I’ve been trying to help a friend from Honduras look at volunteering in the UK for one year – he’s educated and not a law breaker, don’t worry everyone! – but it is literally impossible. He is visiting the US soon for 2 weeks and even has to get a VISA for that, which he might not get, simply for the fact that he has the bad luck of having a Honduran passport.
“and I thought Birmingham was bad.” – you have no idea how lucky you are.
“and yet they keep breeding” – I wish I could sit with you for 10 minutes to tell you how disgusting your comment is. If you bothered to learn anything about what you’re commenting on you would know that the Catholic church in Honduras prevents sexual education in school, has made abortion illegal (even in cases of rape) and pretty much says that the use of condoms and other contraceptives is illegal.
Ok, so I sound angry right? It’s because I am! I just hate how ignorant we are in Western nations to the problems that developing countries are facing – I don’t think we realise how little people from developing nations have. As I talked about in my last blog, if your country was in the middle of a war and your family encouraged you to go to a rich country where you would have a chance at surviving and possibly even getting a well paid job, are you really saying there is no way you would go? And when you got to this foreign country, with no money, food or place to sleep, and you had one friend and they told you they were part of a gang and the gang would look after you and give you everything you needed, are you 100% sure you would say no? Of course I’m not saying every gang member got drawn into crime like this, but many did and that is why Honduras has the problem it does. The majority of its people are innocent and just want to get by in life – they don’t have the luxuries of cars, holidays or even nice houses with nice furniture. Many of the houses in Tegus are basically sheds. The people I have met in Honduras are some of the friendliest people I have met and by presenting it in the way it does, the Daily Mail is alienating these people from those who can possibly help them. It’s not all just about money, just raising awareness (and being aware yourself) can help and stop the ignorance about the developing world. So please, when you see articles like this don’t believe everything you read and – as we were taught in my masters – ask questions so you can understand more.
Rant over. Thanks for reading.
A year volunteering! 
“Obviously not everyone is basically stupid but some people are… particularly people who read the Daily Mail and choose to comment on things that they know nothing about.” —
Firstly, I’d like to point out that you read Daily Mail. You read that article and later on in your rant you say that you used it as a source to read about knife attacks in the UK. Evidently, your friends read it as well, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to send it to you to read.
Secondly, your comment about people commenting on things that they know nothing about is offensive and ignorant.
How do people come to learn about things and the world around them if they aren’t willing to read about them and discuss them with their peers, fellow citizens, etc.? So, in my opinion, their reading about what’s going on and then using the comment section (that is on nearly every news and blogging site/network now) to talk about it (that’s why it’s there!), is perfectly acceptable. After all, every person is entitled to their beliefs, opinions and to knowledge. Which brings me to my next issue.
“Don’t read it if you have a weak stomach; apparently the Daily Mail sees fit to copy the Honduran newspapers and show photos of dead bodies, people in pain and family members in mourning. Nice.” —
If it’s news in Honduras and they “see fit” to show everyone the pictures as well, why is it so unbelievable wrong (in your opinion) for the Daily Mail to share it, too?
I mean, do I enjoy viewing pictures of horribly wounded people, dead people, violence and war? Not particularly, but as we’ve established, it’s news! It’s something that is actually going on, no matter how you try to belittle it here on your blog by saying the whole place isn’t like that.. Okay, fine. It doesn’t go on everywhere and not every Honduran is like that. I didn’t think for one second that it did or that they were… All right? But then you say, and this brings me to my next issue,
“I’m not saying that I would walk around SPS, or Tegus, without being cautious and I definitely wouldn’t walk around at night” —
You make it obvious here that you would be scared or nervous to be there and wouldn’t even think to walk around after dark. Something must be occurring to jar your nerves enough to cause you to feel unsafe like that.
Next, I bring up again your reading Daily News for the knife statistics..
“search on google ‘how many people are killed by knives each year in the uk´ and straight away had results like 130,000 knife attacks a year (Daily Mail of course), a knife attack every 4 minutes, 6 killed a week and 3500 murders a year from knives. If you read this and didn’t know which country it refered to, I’m pretty sure you would say you wouldn’t want to go there and you’d be imagining somewhere very far from the UK. But I for one feel pretty safe when I’m in the UK, including London which is where the majority of knife attacks happen.” —
In my opinion, comparing this to the events taking place in Honduras is not an equal comparison.
“And I’ve never had one of my friends who live in London say they are worried about crime – which is one of the questions I’m asked often when talking about my life in Tegus.” —
Wherever you live, there are areas where crime is higher. No matter where you are, there’s always a possibility of running into a dangerous situation. Sadly, that’s the world we all live in. If someone told me that they never worry about it or think about it, I would tell them that they need to wake up.
“The Daily Mail has a tendency to dramatise things and pick out all of the worst statistics (and pictures) and present the horror that people face as though it is entertainment.” —
The pictures speak for themselves. The Daily Mail has to dramatize nothing. They have to pick the worst pictures? Well, let me put it this way: If something were to happen where I live and the majority walked away from it unharmed, or at least not seriously injured, BUT it did bring devastation and horror to even one person or just one family, I would want to know about that one person and family! Who wouldn’t? That shows people just how serious it is, how dangerous, and that it actually happened. And no one said that the article was “entertainment”.. It’s news.
“But it is not the Daily Mail that I am really angry at, it’s the people who choose to comment on these kind of articles.” —
I noted that you did say “not everyone”, but you would pick and choose who is okay to make a comment and who isn’t?
Everyone is free to speak. Everyone is free to have their opinion, like I previously stated. That’s why the comment section is there.
And it doesn’t matter the topic, it could be about nothing at all or just some stupid wanna-be celebrity and people will still troll that article. There will be ridiculous comments on every subject known to man. That’s the way it is, unfortunately. But thank God we have the right to say what we want! Yes, some people need to hold their tongues or perhaps get a new hobby, and I sometimes tell them that very thing. But I would never censor them or take their right to speak away.
And I wouldn’t censor the news either, which is what it sounds like you would have them do here. We already have enough of that as it is now.
Also, it’s okay for people to be afraid or worry about their country. It’s okay to worry about certain outsiders coming in. I dare say it’s even normal, or just good common sense.
Have you forgotten how much has gone on in our world in just our short lifetime? How about for our previous generations? Forget that! How about in just the last 10 or 15 years?
Do I sound angry? I’m not. That wasn’t my intention anyway, to come off angry. You just say you hate how ignorant we/people are, well there is a lot of ignorance that I don’t agree with as well and am appalled by, but I found points of your rant to be slightly ignorant as well.
I was going to comment on every point, as there are a couple more things I did want to comment on before I finished this up, but I think I’ll leave it like this instead. Just wanted you to see another side and maybe rethink some of your own comments.. and no offense was intended so I hope that none was taken. Take care.
Hi, thank you for your comment… I was really annoyed after reading the article and so my post is maybe too aggressive but that was how I was feeling at the time and to be honest I expected more arguments against what I said! I read the article as my friend sent it to me and obviously I was interested to see how a city near where I live was being shown, especially as Honduras rarely gets mention from British press. I just want to reply to a few things you have said:
Firstly, I don’t think that the ability to comment on everything we read is a good thing. It is sad but there are a lot of people, in every country, who are not very well educated and hold offensive views and I don’t think it’s right that they are given a way to express their racist, homophobic etc. views. I think this is a bad thing for many reasons.
Secondly, I think the use of the pictures is wrong as did others who saw the article. The Daily Mail recently showed a picture of a British tourist shot dead in the same city, San Pedro Sula in Honduras, but later took the picture down after complaints. Why is it wrong to show a picture of a named British person after death but not others, even if they are anonymous to us?
Thirdly, I am not saying that the crime in London is comparable to the crime in Honduras. It’s not. I was trying to make the point that you can’t get a real idea of a city from statistics. If I had done more research on the crime in Honduras before I had come here, I probably wouldn’t have come but now I am here I see a different side to it. I also wanted to make the point that not everyone is like that here because from the comments made it is clear that people tend to generalise foreign people as ‘the other’ without appreciating what (the majority) of people are like. Also, I’m not sure if you have ever been to Honduras but it is not somewhere you can walk around at night… but that is the same for most developing countries with high crime levels I think.
Thank you for your comment though, I understand how my article may have come across as wrong to others in many ways. However, it annoys me that people in the UK can be so unaware about the rest of the world (when I told my friends that I was coming here, many of them thought Honduras was on a different continent) and that is me included – there is a lot that I don’t know/understand about other countries and situations. And I can’t stand racism which I feel the Daily Mail encourages regularly. Thanks for reading and sharing your views with me though.
Reblogged this on What Journalism.