What is today's most important unreported story?

Question

This question was asked at the Dropping Knowledge event on 9th September by Anonymous, USA. To find out more about Dropping Knowledge check out our blogs:

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Answer 1

There are too many stories that go unreported, or are barely menioned. The world is only just waking up to Darfur; Zimbabwe continues on its kamikaze path towards destruction (latest: union leaders being attacked, arrested etc); more children die each day in Africa of malaria than AIDS but it isn't given the same attention because we all know that if the pharmaceutical companies allowed generic medicines to be available it is such an easily treatable disease; why there's more opium poppy crops in Afghanistan now than there were before the war (when we were told the troops would be destroying them); how - 200 years after the abolition of slavery - modern slavery continues unabated; how there are only a handful of glaciers continuing to advance - with the overwhelming majority shrinking year on year; how ocean levels are rising with the ice caps melting; how Bangladesh will disappear under water in the next 50 years if something isn't done; how more is spent on the arms trade than is spent on aid to Africa.....do you really want me to go on, or do you get the picture?

Too much news goes unreported, and the difference in what is considered news between one country and the next is startling. For example, in the UK there was scant mention of the Caracas floods that lost thousands of lives at the turn of the millenium and Chavez did little to invite the worlds' media to witness them either. Even the sections of the media who seek to criticise him now still don't refer back to that disaster to cite it as an example of his poor leadership (the misplaced lost everything and most were relocated hundreds of miles from their homes, given no help).

You'd think that modern media (including the internet) would stop all this, but you have to be hungry for knowledge and even then its hard to tell the difference between hard facts and half truths.

Answer 2

Oil drilling and exploration. How it pollutes the land and water tables. Salt water deposits above soil. Here in the US there are many pump jacks, oil tanks, salt water tanks. I pass by them daily. All have crude oil on the ground, salt water seeping out, I see the salt water tanks that are suppose to go to a disposal site, driving the salt tankers down the highway with the valve open and the salt water being drained on our roadways. I've seen tanks of oil dumped on the ground or drained in to the creeks and streams. I've been to Alaska and seen Prudoe Bay and what it has done to the polar bears breeding grounds. Pollution and trash everywhere. I've been asked to dump 5-55 gallon drums of used oil into the Chena River. Which I refused. We need to be one with the earth. We are suppose to be caretakers of this planet. Not exploiters. Is oil, money, more important than life?

Answer 3

Today everyone is talking about the people getting sick and dying from tainted food. What they're not talking about is an America where the vast majority of our food come from corporations & factory farms. They don't talk about how diseased and sickly our meat is. Or that commercial hog farms produce more raw sewage than small towns (and hog farms don't need sewage treatment plants). Or that commercial beef has more residues (pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria) than should be allowed by law. And then they wonder why Americans are obese, have inexplicable diseases like chronic fatigue, and why our water & produce are posioned with things like E Coli. Feeding my family safe food is far more important than politics in a country halfway across the globe.

And to distract us from how weak & vulnerable our food supply is, the Fed government is trying to pass NAIS -- a mandatory animal microchipping tracking program. It'll put small farmers out of business while the KFC suppliers with 20 or 30 thousand birds thrive. It'll also require you report to the government if you want to take a horse out a trail ride?!?! Insanity.

Answer 4

The falsification of Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden´s signature. In a True democracy no one can escape justice. Not even one of the Ministers of the resigning Swedish Government.

It´s stated in the Statute Book of Sweden when the borderline behavior goes this far and it´s a Minister behind the crime he/she/they are supposed to be brought before the Supreme Court of Sweden.

Do You by the way think that anyone else than a Minister can give an order like this and be obeyed?

Answer 5

It's not likely we can know the answer to this one, since it's unreported.

I will offer my suggestion as to the most UNDERreported story. It's the genocidal treatment of the refugee camps at Darfur. Thousands of deaths and countless rapes and mutilations in a blatent attempt to eliminate an entire ethnic population. The same thing happened in Rwanda and very little international attention was paid until westerners were allowed in AFTER the slaughter. So many of us, outside shook our heads and wailes about how we were not told. Why were we not told?

Now, again, in Darfur, the refugees are begging for international help, the government denying any help is needed while they actively participate in the massacre.

Is it because it takes place in Africa? Or is there another reason we choose to ignore their plight?

Answer 6

this one was pretty good u always hear about the bad but never the good

Don't know whether you heard about this

but Denzel Washington and his family visited

the troops at Brook Army Medical Center, in

San Antonio,Texas (BAMC) the other day. This

is where soldiers who have been evacuated from

Germany come to be hospitalized in the United

States, especially burn victims. There are some

buildings there called Fisher Houses. The Fisher

House is a Hotel where soldiers' families can stay,

for little or no charge, while their soldier is staying

in the Hospital. BAMC has qui! te a few of these houses

on base, but as you can imagine, they are almost filled

most of the time.

While Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC, they gave

him a tour of one of the Fisher Houses. He asked how

much one of them would cost to build. He took his check

book out and wrote a check for the full amount right there

on the spot. The soldiers overseas were amazed to hear

this story and want to get the word out to the American

public, because it warmed their hearts to hear it.

Answer 7

my cat got locked out of the house and didn't run away! ITS AMAZING!

and

I got stuck for 6 hours sitting in up to 5 miles of cars on I-15 south bound a couple of days ago. A Semi driving in high winds was blown into a Tractor Trailer traveling in the 2nd lane. the trailer the Semi was carying whipped around the Cab. the driverwas killed between the trailer and the cab while the driver of the tractor trailer was only mildly injured.

this was just outside of Las Vegas, and there were NO TRAFFIC REPORTS on this at all!!

Answer 8

The most important unreported story, in my opinion, is the interconnection of all the environmental problems facing our planet. Many people are aware of pollution, habitat destruction, toxic waste, endangered species, extinction, corporations fighting environmental regulations, global warming, etc., etc. However, despite numerous reports on individual environmental problems by various news organizations, none have tried to connect *all* the dots to demonstrate the true dangers facing our world.

Answer 9

The genocide occurring in Darfur. I'm not saying it is going completely unreported, but the attention to it is lackluster at best. With today's media and government focusing on so many non-essential subjects in the world, it's pretty mind-boggling to see tragedies like this on the back-burner.

Answer 10

I think more reporting could be done on the positive aspects of what were accomplishing for the Iraqi people. Its pretty ridiculous that you can get your best unslanted insight into whats going on on the streets from places like YouTube. There seems to be a war between the press and this republican office, and its hurting our country by turning swayable people against the effort for another interest's gain... I think we need clearer reporting - all sides - news that isnt in someones pocket.