SHAME OF A NEWSPAPER LAUGHING AT TRAGEDY

The tone of a news story largely depends on the nature of its content. If it's about a happy occasion, then the audience can naturally be moved to smile or even laugh. Similarly, a tragic story is likely to elicit sadness. So it's very absurd for a Kenyan newspaper to purport to see a funny angle in a story of great sorrow. Laughing at tragedy is such a shame and unethical.

Nearly three hundred lives were lost, when a Malaysian plane was downed in eastern Ukraine. Death brings immense pain to those directly or even indirectly affected. And so, I find it highly insensitive for a national newspaper to publish an article headlined:

"Malaysia crash comes with its lighter side."

What is light about people perishing in a such a horrific manner?

And what's funny about the folly of the man, who changed flights, only to end up dead?

If one of the passengers posted a pictorial premonition on social media, saying, 'If it disappears this is what it looks like,' does it give the newspaper's writer/editor leeway to depict the 'unfortunate' irony, in a 'laughable' context?

There's no lighter side of this story because many hearts are heavy with grief.