Honolulu Lite
THERE'S a sense of unreality in the pictures coming from Kosovo showing thousands of refugees pouring across the borders. Not all refugees are
TV materialIt's a case of visual overload. The refugees look just the way "refugees" should: wretched, scraggly, ill-used, unfed and miserable.
We've seen lots of refugees before. But those were African refugees, Hutus and Tutsies and other tribes with names that sound like 1960 lounge acts. But they could only hold the attention of CNN producers for a few days. Let's face it, the average African refugee looks pretty much like the average resident of any impoverished, famine-ravaged, dictator-controlled African country.
They were wretched, ill-used, unfed and miserable BEFORE they became refugees. They were simply forced from one dry and dismal country to a different dry and dismal country.
But Americans don't have a high compassion threshold for African refugees or for any of the horrors of life that afflict so many millions of African citizens. For instance, there is slavery going on right now in the Sudan. Our president -- who can feel just about anyone's pain at the drop of a poll number -- apparently is having trouble dialing in on the pain frequency of enslaved Sudanese.
Why isn't the United States bombing the ruthless leaders who are committing these clear crimes against humanity? Because these victims suffer from an unfortunate condition peculiar to the television times we live in: they just aren't photogenic.
Now, if we could heap charges of slavery onto the indictment-laden shoulders of Slobodan Milosevic, look out, Nellie! It'd be time to break out the tactical nukes.
We're bombing Yugoslavia back into the Ottoman Age because of crimes against people who look a lot like many European Americans, which is to say, white folks. At least, pretty much like any European American after a three-day bender or a Democratic national convention.
The Kosovo refugees look like they were assembled by some enormous Hollywood casting call. ("Send us your tired, your wretched, your huddling masses. OK, let's have the tired stand over there. Can the wretched please hold it down until we start shooting. Huddling masses, hey, you guys look fabulous! All right people, ACTION!")
There are so many of them and they have been given so much air time on television that you begin to think of them as extras. They have become merely background in an elaborate morality play staged to win over our hearts.
It doesn't help matters when someone like Noah Wyle shows up in the refugee camps. Wyle isn't a doctor but he plays one on television -- on "ER."
"I saw some awesome sights," he told reporters. "There have been refugees since the beginning of time, but these were the first ones I ever met, so naturally it was eye-opening."
Naturally. And I bet it was equally eye-opening for the refugees to meet a fake doctor. Too bad they didn't have any fake wounds he could heal.
With so many celebrities popping over to Albania, you have to wonder if an entirely new industry -- Eco-Refugee Tourism -- is developing.
Probably not. Americans eventually tire of seeing both television shows and refugees, even photogenic ones. I suspect the Kosovo refugees soon will be dropped from primetime coverage. Hopefully, they can get their screen extras union cards first.
Charles Memminger, winner of
National Society of Newspaper Columnists
awards in 1994 and 1992, writes "Honolulu Lite"
Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Write to him at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, 96802
or send E-mail to charley@nomayo.com or
71224.113@compuserve.com.
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