Nothing newsworthy here

You’d think it might be newsworthy there’s  been raining & flooding & mud slides along the coast of Ecuador since January, with meteorologists predicting rains through May. Here a woman tends to chickens caught in a perilous situation. It’s true it hasn’t been the worst flooding in the world--with only waist deep water, 30 people killed, about 5,000 people evacuated with most in disaster shelters, 200 homes destroyed, & crops wiped out--but it’s still more consequential than fashions & snubs at the country music awards, the pilot who flipped out midair, & speculations on the $650 million lottery winners. What makes it most noteworthy is that catastrophic flooding has gone on in other Latin American countries & all over southern & Southeast Asia, devastating entire regions (like in Pakistan) and there’s hardly a peep in the US media. Perhaps the oligarchs fear if we hear what’s going on climate-wise, we might start putting two & two together & asking nosy questions, like does this have anything to do with global warming? From such queries can come rebellion against a class of people unfit to manage the planet for the welfare of all. So ignorance again serves power. (Photo by Rodrigo Buendia/AP)