i am sitting at the computer with three news articles in front of me:

one is the exciting story of the Chilean miners who have been trapped underground since August 5 who are about to be rescued and are ‘fighting’ over who can go last so that their friends can get to freedom first – inspirational story of courage and survival and just so enthralling to see the whole world focused on the kind of “just 33 people” we might write off in a plane or train smash – so much energy and effort and pioneering in digging techniques etc etc been aimed towards these not just 33 men – inspiring stuff.

and latest update on the rescue

the second one is the story of a four year old girl in cape town who survived a 5 storey fall and only suffered a fractured arm – it is believed she slipped off a balcony and fortunately managed to hit an area of lawn missing the large paved section surrounding it

as i read the second one i thort to myself what a pleasure it is to read good news for a change, and two articles worth of it…

then there is the third story which begins with the line, “Lindsay Lohan is reportedly being treated for cocaine addiction.”

and i know i should feel sorry for her (for those of you who have not been following the lindsay lohan story she is currently in the middle of an out-of-control spiral that is making brittney spears look good) and i do, and i really hope that she has some quality people in and around her life to stand besides her and strengthen her and pray for her and help bring her back to life… but my over-riding feeling is anger – at the fact that in the middle of these other two inspiring stories, it is lindsay lohan that gets a greater focus from the media, and from the world audience. she is the role model.

‘girl survives five storey fall’ gets a four short paragraph mention on the side of an iafrica news tab, but the papers and magazines and websites will be scrambling for lindsay space

imagine a world where good news dominates the headlines – imagine what that would do to us in terms of hope and inspiration and resolve and determination and community…

only we can create that demand. maybe we should start doing so.