[Jasonstawnosaa]

I think Fr. Raphael has hit more on the problem. American news, by and large, does not concern itself with international events unless they are directly related to us (e.g. Iraq). So, I think the fact that this wasn't covered much on the news (except for a cnn ticker) is a mix of what Fr. Raphael said (and would therefore explain why it was covered in Canada where they do concern themselves more with the world outside of Canada and the US) and what Tracy said in her last post. Let's face it, Orthodoxy is not American. I don't mean this to criticize Orthodoxy or America... it's just that we simply do not have an important presence here. We are not the leaders in anything in the US except perhaps really cool ethnic festivals in Chicago. Honestly, most americans don't care that a few of "Patri-whats?" died off the coast of Greece. I mean, I'm sure they would recognize that this is not happy news and that it is tragic... but there is no relevancy. Let's not act as if Orthodoxy is more relevant to the US culture than it really is. The most visibility we have had was "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"... and that was about being Greek... not Orthodox ("I didn't know Greeks were Jewish" lol). From going on line, it seems to me that Australia has a pretty strong presence of Orthodox (mostly Greek??) when taking into account how small Australia is compared to the US. In other words, I think, proportionally, Australia has a much larger presence of Orthodox than the US does.

As far as 911 goes, I have no wish to diminish the importance of the Bali bombings, but you simply cannot compare that to the impact that 911 had on the world. Don't forget, we had Oklahoma, and we never really obsessed over that. That was a major terrorist bombing, but it did not "shake" the world nor the US. But 911 was more than a bombing... two planes hit two very tall buidings in one of the most important cities in the world. Then a third hit the pentagon, then a 4th was going for the White house which was saved due to the heroic efforts of some selfless men. You cannot compare what Americans were feeling that day (and up to this day) to what they were feeling when the Oklahoma federal Building was bombed. The whole world was impacted by this (although not to the extent that the US, and perhaps Canada, was). I was in Spain when 911 took place and would be there for another 10 months so I know how Europe reacted and it was headline news for sometime. I was also not affected by US News media during that year abroad.

I'm not trying to excuse the US media for its obsessive ans sensationalist nature, I'm jsut saying that you cannot compare the impact of that day to any other terrorist attack. I think if the same thing happened in Australia, the media would act similarly although probably not to the same degree (but let's not forget where Rupert Murdoch is from ). And after having visited London a few times this summer and talking to my girlfriend who lived there for a couple months, I no longer think that the US is the king of sensationalism (apologies to my British friends).I know, they are all equally tragic, I agree (just like the Oklahoma bombing was and the terroist attack on the WTC some years before 911)and I am not diminishing the importance of other terror attacks... but c'mon.

There is no consipiracy to slight Orthodox in the US and abroad (Christian's by and large love conspiracy theories... each group feels more picked on than the next... we all love to be the victim).

There's for my ranting.

James