I know this topic has been done to death but I think that the reactions to Steve Irwins death have been interesting. My friend was on a discussion board and someone had posted something along the lines of "I hates Steve Irwin beacause of how he made Australia seem and I think he deserved everything he got, he was an idiot."

Another reaction which I noticed at school was that although many people were quite shocked I heard some girls laughing. Not maliciously but I realised that they were only laughing at the death of the image, rather than that of the man himself. Interestingly enough when those girls were told that Steve Irwins niece attended our school, they suddenly stopped laughing. Coming to the realisation that it was in fact a tragic event in which a wife and two children had lost their husband/father at a ridiculously young age.

I think this situation can easily be applied to the issues experienced in trying to get young people, the ones with the most power, involved in making change. Because, thankfully, the majority of us have never expereienced anything like extreme poverty it is hard for many to simply feel motivated when it is very hard to know where to start and becuase it is much easier to simply pass it off as something that we can't change.

If people can't directly relate to a situation- if all they ever receive is numbers and statistics- then many can't feel directly attached to it or it seems like an outcome that cannot possibly be achieved. Because although the numbers are often shocking, many people do not really appreciate the scale of these numbers as they are often very hard to imagine. I think this is what everyone has to work on getting over in trying to get young people involved in making poverty history.

Returning to the original topic I think that although he had his controversial moments Steve Irwin was a positive marketer for Australia and that he was a genuine, dedicated man and I also think that it is important to consider everything before, if it's necessary at all, passing judgement.