Not-That-Bright said:
Meanwhile hundreds of thousands lie dead in africa but we're doing nothing...
Exactly what I was about to say.
I used to think people's reaction to various world events directly corresponded to the hype given by the media. That's clearly not the case though. You have a look at the African case, and now the tsunami's. We all know there's been more deaths in the former case, yet the reaction is 10-fold for the latter. Rather than the media, the only thing that the general public really care about is in/stability-i.e peaks and troughs. While there's consistency in the deaths in Africa, there are no noticeable peaks in the amount of deaths. It's relatively even. Which is of course completely opposite to what happened with the tsunami.
I might seem cynical but this whole show of support seems based on emotion/sentiment rather than any motivation to aid the world in this and similar problems. If that weren't the case, people would have a minute of silence every single day for all those victims of starvation and disease in Africa. One thing is certain: For every penny/aid worker that aids in every person saved at the scene of this tsunami, there exists one less penny/aid worker for the sufferers in Africa.