Kashmir’s earthquake: don’t care or don’t know?

[Briar]

Kashmir’s earthquake: don’t care or don’t know?
Beena Sarwar

...

The Kashmir earthquake has already claimed more than 79,000 lives according to official figures; unofficial estimates put the number closer to 100,000. Whichever is closest to the truth, the figure is likely to double as winter sets in. In that case, it will approach the 200,000 casualties of the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004.

Katrina left a little over 1,200 people dead and displaced half a million. “Misery links victims of quake, hurricane; Scope of Pakistan crisis much larger, however”, is how the Baton Rouge Advocate headlined Robert Tanner’s report from Battal, Pakistan (22 October 2005). Tanner had also covered the aftermath of Katrina. He said that the earthquake’s aftermath was “much crueller”...

But compared to the generosity witnessed after the tsunami, the world’s response has been miserly. The tsunami of December 2004 catalysed $10 billion in disaster relief for its victims – marginally less than the $10.5 billion the United States Senate proposed for Katrina’s victims (to which President Bush committed a further $51.8 on 7 September)...

“Donor fatigue” doesn’t explain the relative silence of media that normally thrive on disaster. The few reports trickling in from the earthquake zone remain blips in the overall media radar. Despite stunning photographs and excellent reporting on how precarious life is without tents and aid, these reports are mostly buried in the inside pages. The contrast with the sustained and prominent reporting on the Asian tsunami and hurricane Katrina is stark...


http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict-india_pakistan/earthquake_rel
ief_3024.jsp

[left is right]

1. It didn't get the attention it deserved/needed because

it affected mostly Arabs and they pretty much got what they deserved.

[Igel]

2. Muslims, 98% or more.

The people are non-Semitic, apart from recent immigrants.

Mostly Indo-European speaking.

Then again, probably most of the tsunami victims were Muslim. And they didn't even share a language family.

[Bridget Burke]

3. I do hope you are being sarcastic.

There are very few "Arabs" in Kashmir.