Dying at the Discoteque

There was a terrible train accident in Spain yesterday. Today, media published a video, where we can allegedly see how the train comes far too fast to the corner and flies off the tracks. I say allegedly, because I haven't seen the video. I refuse to watch it, because I don't like the way media sells us death and destruction claiming it to be "news" and as something of a "must-see" so that we can do our ooh's and aah's and be afraid of the world and life itself.

People die, every day, everywhere. Accidents happen, you don't need to be in Spain for that. Here in Finland I am fine with the piece of news that there has been a horrible accident in Spain and my heart goes to the people who have suffered, but I don't need to have pictures of bloody people with the words "like in Dante's Hell" painted all over that. Why do media think that I want to be on the spot, looking at the agony, seeing how the train crashes? And why do they think I want to pay for that?

I've noticed I've really started to reduce my consumption of news, depressing or otherwise. There is so much suffering in the world that reading it constantly can really make you scared for your own life. And news are nowadays so fresh in the market that there is no time to check all the facts. Someone will publish it anyway, so why bother. It's really sad that they don't teach media reading skills starting in the elementary school or kindergarten.

I have to admit that I did use to read all the news of different tragedies. It made me feel something, somekind of devastation and sadness in front of death. But I noticed the feelings always rose only from the bad news. That's why I now go rather read a book or listen to music than follow the news that don't have any direct effect on me and my life. I don't know if it makes any difference, but at least I have the chance of noticing things around me rather than burdening myself with things I can't do much about anyway. There is nothing indifferent in that, just absorbing the facts and leaving the decorations to others. The investigators might need to see the film about the train. I don't.


I remember Estonia-ferry tragedy very well. I woke up in the morning when the helicopters were flying non-stop over our house and we already knew something big had happened. I spared the newspapers talking about the accident. There was no internet then, nowadays it's become somehow even nastier and more sensational, even if the magazines at that time did their best to shock, too.