Ethnocentrism

I was mortified today to find that there are 3200 gold miners trapped in a gold mine about 50 kilometers outside of Johannesburg in South Africa. The most mortifying fact about this, in my mind, is the fact that it hasn't really been covered in our media thus far. It has been mentioned in most of the news reports I've heard, but mostly as a byline. If 3200 of our (and I use that word against my better judgement) miners were trapped approximately 1.3 miles underground, there would be never-ending coverage on every single news station. Now I know that our news channels can't cover everything that happens everywhere in the world, but I personally would think that 3200 souls trapped and possibly about to die would be newsworthy. It just goes to show how much we as Americans are only worried about ourselves. This may just be me being obsessed with South African news because my sister lives there, but I feel like the fact that we glaze over such stories is very upsetting. 3200 people is a LOT of people. It doesn't matter where they live. Those are still people who are trapped, scared, hungry, thirsty, and tired. If we as a country cannot take five seconds out of our day to worry about three thousand people just because they live in another country, then we have some serious problems that we need to face.