Know-it-all parachute journalists

MANILA
American media’s recent commentary about what they thought was the Philippine government’s inadequate response to the supertyphoon devastation in central Visayas was uncalled for, insensitive and disrespectful.
What right have these outsiders to interrogate and harass the president of the Philippines about his alleged slow response to the crisis? Who are these know-it-alls to impose their own opinion on us even as we try our best to bring succor to our unfortunate and beleaguered countrymen?
The problem with these US journalists is they think they know everything. Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour of Cable News Network (CNN) went overboard in their questioning of the president of a sovereign country. American reporters are often smug and overbearing when they talk to other people, especially foreigners. We’ve seen them browbeat people they don’t like, abuse and intimidate them by sounding authoritative (authoritarian?) and domineering. In short, they’re bossy, oftentimes too bossy for their own good.
Was this the right time to speak so arrogantly to the leader of an independent country? Is there ever a time to do so, except when the leader being interviewed is a hated despot or some other despicable character?
It’s disingenuous to preface a question, as Amanpour has done, with praise and then attack him by saying that his perceived slow action could define (negatively) his otherwise praiseworthy governance?
Where do these people come from? Where do they get such hubris and arrogance? Where do they buy this stuff?
No doubt, they will rationalize their rude behavior by claiming sympathy for the victims of supertyphoon Yolanda. That would be a lame excuse. There’s no excuse for such sorry behavior. They have no right at all to behave like that.
President Aquino’s critics may say he deserved the kind of intense (but uncalled for) questioning. I say no, not at that particular juncture when everybody was trying to cope with a chaotic, unprecedented and nightmarish situation.
Yolanda was one of a kind. At least so far in the early days of intensifying global warming. Maybe more intense weather disturbances are here to stay and we were the first to experience one of them.
Would the Americans have done a better job? Maybe, because they have better equipment, training and forecasting capabilities. Maybe because they have greater resources that would enable them to respond more quickly and in a much more organized fashion.
But even with such resources, I doubt if they could have been quicker to respond in Yolanda’s wake. Remember that the American government, both at the local and federal levels, did miserably when Hurricane Katrina pummeled New Orleans, Louisiana. Also, the eastern seaboard of the United States, including New York, was devastated by another storm, Sandy. not too long ago, and many citizens complained about how slow their government had responded.
In any case, assigning blame was so inappropriate at the time when everybody here, both government people and civilians, were scrambling to get a fix on the situation and react accordingly. How could the government, or any one, have responded in an effective way when all means of communication were down, some of the terrain was forbidding, chaos and uncertainty were the order of the day, and the number of affected people was so great the rescuers didn’t know where to start?
Someone will say, that’s exactly the point, that the situation was so dire it needed someone to be directing all rescue and relief efforts. True, but why castigate the Filipinos, particularly their president, at a time when that was totally uncalled for? Note that even the president’s regular critics here have generally been silent. Precisely because it’s not the time to point fingers.
It’s easy for lone ranger-type journalists to rush to a news scene because it’s just them and a small crew that’s involved. Rescue teams and social workers in great numbers can’t simply materialize in a disaster area and start saving survivors and feeding thousands of victims. Transport is paralyzed and affected areas are covered with immovable debris. Power and communication lines are down. Water is cut off.
It’s so easy to criticize when you’re not the ones doing the rescuing. That’s why foreign journalists who swoop down on a scene of disaster are called “parachute” journalists. They come in a haste and they become instant experts on the place they had just landed in. Oftentimes they’re wrong about what they say. But they don’t let ignorance get in the way of sounding authoritative. And arrogant.