A lesson from Bhutto: the world (and the U.S.) still doesn't care

If one good thing can be said to have come from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto is the sad conclusion that we still don't care, or don't know enough to care.

Truth be told, before the murder of the 57-year-old Pakistani former prime minister and opposition leader to the current regime, very few knew who she was, what she meant, and what she could've meant, had her political saga continued as foreseen. Aside maybe from the NY Times' World editor, many would think of the former UN secretary general, and not her, at the mention of the name.

And the saddest part? In a week or two, when Bhutto's buried and her son's named leader of the opposition, we will never hear about Pakistan again, until the next major martyr is dead. Elections take place on January 8, when the Bush government will probably decide what they'll do - or not do - with Pakistan. After that date, newspapers will be once more filled with news from Iraq, news about oil (and Chavez, just in case) and shootings at the street corner market. Oh, and the 2008 presidential elections - together with senatorial, house of representatives and some gubernatorial elections - are still some 10 months away, so there'll still be some coverage on that.

Maybe a blurb here or there will announce what the other 190 countries have been up to. No matter what one may say, foreign countries exist nowadays just to serve our need for extraordinary news. When the pope died, we were interested; when Madrid and London suffered terrorist attacks, we were interested. As Bhutto's assassination is still fresh in our memories, we are still interested. But give it a week or two.

In that sense, President Bush has to be honored. Due to his campaign in Iraq, the top newspapers in the country have seen a continued prominence of international news stories on their front pages unseen since the Vietnam War, or even longer. Between 2004 and 2005, for example, almost every day was Iraq a part of their front page, from good and not-so-good reasons. As a matter of fact, almost three out of every four international news stories on the front page of major papers in the U.S. in those two years focused solely on Iraq, and no one else, a recent study showed. It's been that way, and will probably remain there for at least another year. If it depends on Bhutto's example, maybe we should hope so.

The said realization is that as much as we'd like to say we feel for Pakistan, we don't, simply because we don't know them well enough. It may be the government's fault, our educational system's, our culture's or our parents'. But, as 2008 arrives through the hands of Dick Clarke or Tila Tequila, one can only wonder if we'll see more of the same, or if the U.S. will finally wake up and realize we're not alone.