I am sure that there is some sort of middle ground between the "couldn't care less" attitude of Brian Holden and the "look at me, heroically saving the flood victims" attitude of much of the media.

"Disasters" happen! Survivors pick up the pieces and move on - as a societal if not individual behaviour. Worldwide!

Those of us who were neither personally, nor friends or relatives affected generally feel sympathy and/or empathy for our fellow citizens - especially those who lost loved ones. This is demonstrated by the response of many unaffected Australians who have volunteered, donated, opened their homes and other expressions of concern and solidarity. It's called "Looking after your own!" Who knows when we may become 'victims' ourselves?

As for what happens in the rest of the world - I am relatively unconcerned. Yes I feel sympathy and agree with the provision of AID provided it is in real terms like food, expertise, equipment etc, not money as I believe this often finds its way into the coffers of corrupt governments.

Othewise the care factor is not huge - unless 'victims' decide they'd like to make for Australia in leaky boats. Then I become truly discompassionate.

For the bleeding hearts who will undoubtedly respond with comments using words like "racist" and "xenophobic" please consider that this very moment there are probably a number of foreign fruitcakes praising God for visiting this event upon a Nation of infidels and possibly a few already living within our borders.

I'm with the last few posters. I've heard this kind of rubbish more times than I care to remember. It's a tired argument, and a little shallow too. Would you like there to be non-stop coverage of every disaster around the world? Or a few days coverage of every disaster, even in our own backyard, followed by a collective amnesia. I'm sure the vast majority of the citizens of Jordan do not care or do not know about the floods in Queensland. Does this make them heartless? Or more enlightened? Would you like every news bulletin to preface every story about a disaster in a 1st world country with the line, "of course it's nothing compared to the suffering of the 3rd world..." Do you think that in showing compassion to our fellow Australians, we are automatically dismissive of the suffering of others around the world?

Barry Holden, I've met your type before. And I think this exactly the spot for cheap name calling. I bet you are the sort of self-righteous kill-joy who likes to verbally batter all around you about how much more aware and empathetic you are about everything else. I bet you never have any fun, instead opting to watch documentaries about public sanitation in Chad, when you're not writing letters to the editor about the way in which game shows reinforce the dominant racist-sexist paradigm.

I hope you can practice what you preach, and tell everybody you know that you don't care about the floods in Queensland. Eventually you're gonna tell it to someone who's does care.... It is a little too easy to be a contrarian. You really are stupid.

It is refreshing to read this article , which accords with my reactions to the media reaction to this , and similar , natural disasters . While I do care , and will contribute to an appeal , I regard the extent of media coverage as excessive . I have family in Queensland , who ,mercifully , have survived with no physical , and minimal financial loss . Very few people genuinely feel sorrow about loss suffered by persons other than close family and friends , but we are all supposed to express personal grief at the collective suffering of persons whom we do not know , when a major disaster occurs , or when a " celebrity " suffers a misfortune .If one person , whom we do not know , suffers a loss through natural causes , or accident , the media does not report it and we are not expected to grieve . When there are many persons suffering , the media uses terms like "decimated " , "tsunami " and " holocaust " all of which are incorrect uses in the present circumstances .

Subjectively, we have a hierarchy of concern based on proximity and connectedness. So, we are most moved by the suffering of ourselves and our families, then our friends, then neighbours, then others in our communities, and then perhaps those of the same nationality as us.

The basis of many ethical systems, however, is to recognise firstly that this subjective hierarchy is not an objective one, and secondly than an ethical system gives equal weight to the suffering of all, even if as subjective individuals we don’t. Christianity, utilitarianism and many other ethical systems are at heart based on the empathetic awareness that someone else’s suffering matters as much to them as the same experiences would to us. From the “point of view of the universe” (as Singer describes it), another person’s suffering is no more or less undesirable than my suffering.

Racism does not consist of caring more about the suffering of a fellow Australian than a Pakistani; it consists of believing a Pakistani’s suffering to be less important in any objective or absolute sense than the suffering of an Australian. The most ethical and compassionate people I know are ones who are most aware of the gap between subjective and objective responses to others, and who try to reduce it by recognising and responding to the absolute value of every human being.

So I don’t believe we are hypocritical, callous or racist if we care more for Queenslanders than Pakistanis. But we are callous is we fail to be moved because we are not directly affected, and worse still if we say that foreign aid to Pakistan and other poor countries should be stopped and diverted to Australian flood relief, as some letter writers have argued on our local press.

There is also a world of difference between the shallow, mawkish self-indulgent outpourings on Diana’s death and an empathetic response to widespread human suffering in natural disasters

While I am interested in what is happening, my experience with the media has been similar. Endless, endless repetition. I could watch the news for half an hour and be little more informed than I was the previous day.

Was there no other news? Did the rest of Australia or the world cease spinning?

The final effect on my viewing was that I stopped watching the news, and went onto international websites to find out what was really happening.

As for the directors of the guilty news channels, I feel the firing squad is too quick a death.