Monday, October 10, 2005

Earthquakes and Floods: South Asia to the Americas

One cannot help but to be saddened yet again by the massive loss of life, homes, livelihoods, and possessions experienced by people from Pakistan and India to Guatemala as a result of natural disasters. The BBC News is reporting that as many as 20,000 children may have lost their lives in the remote northern provinces of Pakistan due to the earthquake, and surely the number of people washed away in the floodwaters raging in Central America’s rural towns and villages is painfully high. Let’s face it, 2005 has not been a good year for the survival of life on Earth. Neither was 2004 come to think about it.

Global Voices Online:
bloggers respond to the big quake:
Pakistan South Asia
bloggers respond to aftermath of hurricane Stan: Central America
Rob Mercatante’s Guatemala Journal: Anger at Slow Aid

BBC News Online:
In Depth
The South Asia Quake, Reporters Log South Asia (Day 3)
Americas
Guatemala villages mass graves

CNN International:
Americas
Guatemala landslide areas considered mass graves

Aljazeera Online (interesting reader comments section):
Quake survivors wait for Relief (South Asia)



2 comments:

007 in Africa said...

Oh god, what's happening? Why all these natural disasters in the space of a few months?

BRE said...

Some of the oldtimers back from where I come from would say that we ain't been living right and God is punishing us. I personally would attribute many of these natural disasters to cycles of geologic and weather events that have been occuring on the planet for millions and millions of years.

More people get killed, injured, and are left homeless because there are more people on Earth. Many people unfortunately live in earthquake zones and flood plains and tornado alleys and so forth, which is a result of poor and extremely dangerous planning for human habitat. For the vast majority of people affected by these most recent disasters it is simply a result of living in poverty and not having a say or choice where they can live, among other things they cannot do to avert disaster.

Then there are those who would claim that Armageddon is near and that the world is coming to a violent end any minute now. For example, checkout the folks over at http://www.armageddononline.org/

Take your pick. They are all right.