Good and bad news

Ireland: "Gardai has a new suspect in Dublin murder case"
South Korea: "Kim Han-Neul to tie the knot with Lee Seo-Jun next month"
Finland: The government planning a rise in income tax percentage during the next reign"
Poland: Probably something similar to Finland
Australia: Something very similar to Ireland

Some things really cause the blood to boil

As you may have guessed, these are some examples of news headlines in different countries. When I first moved to Ireland I started to suspect that the country is full of madmen and an Irish mafia hit man is waiting for fresh victims around every corner. I left the office only after reading the news and making sure there wasn't major mayhem happening in our neighborhood. Then my roommate told me it's not so much about Ireland being a dangerous country than about media attention. In Ireland murders are the most interesting thing. And actually, that seems to be right. Statistically Ireland is even a safer place than Finland but still the Finnish media is much more focused on suggested changes in taxation, proposed cuts in salaries, etc. Who cares about a human life or two when there is a potential financial crisis lurking in the shadows. And maybe Finnish murders are too boring to hit the headlines because we're still a country where it's more likely to be stabbed to death by your family members than by a random guy on the street. Probably that's the origin of the common question "is this a family fight or can everybody participate?" (to be asked when you see a group fighting) By the way the Irish murders were usually connected to gang fights or drunkards taking it outside with fatal consequences. (Well, we have enough of that latter kind of shit in Finland, too).

So, all in all, in Ireland half of the area of the country is permanently isolated with crime scene tape and in Finland people are debating about a 0,00001% change in income tax rate, unemployment benefit or student aid. In South Korea people are always interested not only in the newest installments of the neighboring country but also in who are dating and who is about to settle down and be married with whom and live happily ever after, of course.

In Poland I never watched or read the news but I assume it's all about politics just like in Finland. And in Australia it's Ireland all over again. Murders, weather forecast and MasterChef. I think I'm going to move to Sweden. Their news are the most versatile.