Well, let's see what else happened that day. With a little research, I found that 1.6 million people die every year from fumes coming from their kerosene lamps. Why do they use kerosene lamps? It turns out that 1.5 billion people worldwide can't afford the electricity to light an electric light bulb, so they burn kerosene oil instead. Each year, this leads to 1.6 million deaths (approximately 4,384 people killed a day), simply because they have no light bulbs. The news media will tell you that 12 miners, who are paid to do hazardous work, that chose the line of work they were in over lower paying alternatives - are more important than the 4,384 lives of poor people that were lost that day. These are lives that we could easily save if we wanted to. Thankfully, some are actually trying to do so. The Canadian Light Up the World Foundation is one such organization. They have provided 10,000 LED solar-powered lamps to people that previously could only afford kerosene lamps.

One LED solar lamp can help a whole family by providing light. The lamp can also save people from spending the little money they have on kerosene and keeps them from dying due to inhaling its toxic fumes. That's a pretty good investment in humanity for a $55 piece of technology. Why do you need to read about a great Canadian initiative to provide useful and life-saving technology to poor people on page 15 of Excalibur rather than the front page of the Toronto Star? I don't know. But I can tell you that 4,384 more people are going to die today because they don't have this device. When we read that 12 miners are trapped in a mine, what are we supposed to do? Make a mental note to never become a miner? Sell our stocks in Inco?

When the media sensationalizes and overexposes a tragic story, they keep us from learning about other similar tragedies around us, where we could make a difference.

Just for perspective, on the day that the 12 miners were trapped, about 16 construction workers were also killed in the U.S. That's the daily casualty average for that trade. Why isn't this front page news either? It seems to me that if it were given more coverage, something might be done about it. Were these construction workers any less heroic than the miners? Were the 4,384 poor any less heroic? What makes the lives of these miners more valuable? You don't have to succumb to this skewed view of the world. Don't let the mainstream media keep you in the dark. Help a family get an LED lamp.