Pakistan

Fresh from the BBC:

Dozens are killed as three trains crash in southern Pakistan, derailing at least 13 carriages.

I watch enough TV to know that mass transportation in southern Asia isn't quite the same as it is here in the Western World. When a passenger train is in motion, there are people all over it...like ants on a discarded Granny Smith Apple. They sit on the roof, they cling to the sides, and they pack themselves in like sardines on the inside.

When a passenger train derails there...it affects probably twice as many passengers as the same size train does here, where there are more safety concerns.

While I was typing, my email pinged. Fox News Channel has hopped on board the story, adding:

OFFICIAL: AT LEAST 60 DEAD AFTER THREE TRAINS COLLIDE IN PAKISTAN

No doubt CNN will give me a town in the next ten minutes or so. And note that FNC did it in all CAPS, to give it that "Newspapery Feel"...

The race to be the first news outlet is a stupid one. They'd be just as dead if I didn't hear about it until tomorrow morning while I pulled on a Red Bull and decided against cereal again.

And I'd bet 90% of the people I know will never even hear about it. But it bothers me that so many people got pulled apart with tons of commuter train. Perhaps because it wouldn't matter in my culture unless Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were on board...