Foo - Pakistan earthquake death toll hits 79,000

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/10/20/pakistan_earthquake_death_toll_rises_to_79000/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+World+News


This disaster makes Katrina look like a hiccup. Interesting that the Atlanta papers barely touched on one of the worst natural disaster in history even when this news first hit.

I've been thinking the same thing......worst casualties I've ever seen in a natural disaster and none of the news outlets I watch make more than passing mention of it. Self-Centered Amercian media.

I really feel for these people.......our company did some matching donations and even further organized donations of actual "goods". No mention of even bothering with this one.....and I think we likely have a division out there (I know we have one in India).

The UN are considering this likely to become one of the worst humanitarian disasters.

In my house we use the Fox scale to determine how bad something is. If FOX news spend more than 25 seconds on an overseas issue you can consider it a sign of the second coming.

"Quake is UN's worst nightmare" - BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4358902.stm). They also say relief situation is worse than last December with the tsunami, although the number of casualties is not quite as big. But death toll will increase unless aid efforts are drastically stepped up.

--J

I think I'm starting to get disaster burnout. Most of the attention around Katrina was media hype and government incompetence. The scale of death wasn't anything like that from the tsunami and doesn't compare to this new calamity.

The saddest thing of all is how some people use such tragedies for their own wicked purposes. It's all very sad.

I have little pity for any 3rd world country that is a major source of terrorist like activity or that is still a 3rd world country in today's day and age.

You build clay houses - what do you expect to happen - pity?
Everybody should stop brining along cell phones, spare bike tires, co2 cartridges, ids, helmets, lyrca ajd bike pumps.

Then when something bad happens we should go ahead and call it the worst bikeitarian disaster since 2 weeks ago.

As adults we are expected to prepare for those disasters. As a Country one is expected the same thing. I won't even get into any of the other political, humanitarian or econonmical issues/problems I have with that whole area.

Katrina was **** - Nobody there knew how to plan it and a whole bunchof people decided to behave extremely improper during it. Florida goes through the same or worse **** year in and year out.

Pakistan was **** - California and Japan go through the same or worse year in and year out.

The difference between both horror stories and their counterparts that face it all the time is people prepare for it and people handle it better. And it's not like it was the first earthquake to hit the area. They know its a earth-quake region but they continue to build stone-age buildings and then "whine when they collapse"

I have little pity for any 3rd world country that is a major source of terrorist like activity or that is still a 3rd world country in today's day and age.

You build clay houses - what do you expect to happen - pity?
Everybody should stop brining along cell phones, spare bike tires, co2 cartridges, ids, helmets, lyrca ajd bike pumps.

Then when something bad happens we should go ahead and call it the worst bikeitarian disaster since 2 weeks ago.

As adults we are expected to prepare for those disasters. As a Country one is expected the same thing. I won't even get into any of the other political, humanitarian or econonmical issues/problems I have with that whole area.

Katrina was **** - Nobody there knew how to plan it and a whole bunchof people decided to behave extremely improper during it. Florida goes through the same or worse **** year in and year out.

Pakistan was **** - California and Japan go through the same or worse year in and year out.

The difference between both horror stories and their counterparts that face it all the time is people prepare for it and people handle it better. And it's not like it was the first earthquake to hit the area. They know its a earth-quake region but they continue to build stone-age buildings and then "whine when they collapse"


I believe this sentiment is exactly what I feared. They are a "stupid third world country that doesn't know any better" so most Americans don't give a flying rats ass.

I believe this sentiment is exactly what I feared. They are a "stupid third world country that doesn't know any better" so most Americans don't give a flying rats ass.

Wrong
They did know better
They knew better as this was NOT the first time it happened.
The problem with this world is that they assume that "they don't have to know better" most people around the world nothing "american" specific rely on other people taking care of them.

The Whole european and candian healthcare and welfare system is reliant on this. You pay 60% taxes to pay for somebody elses welfare and healthcare.

Earthquakes are nothing new - they've riddled this planet for thousands of years. We've had the technology and the knowledge to build houses that are better then mud houses for years. They've had plenty of time. They've even expeienced severe earthquakes that have told them they need to do something about it .


Did they do anything about it ? No instead they "pleaded to other countries to be generous to them"

I think the point is that our media coverage was heavily biased its coverage between the two disasters. Only understandable since American lives were not affected by this. heck, even the Tsunami affected more Americans abroad. Pakistan is a third world country with an infrastructure that is not as highly developed as ours so we can't compare apples to oranges. If anything, the fact that we were so woefully unprepared for a small disaster like Katrina does not put us in a postion to preach to other countries with less resources in facing similar disasters.Can't point fingers when we aren't exactly leading by example. As you stated, we continue to build houses on the fault lines in california, beach houses on florida etc. Either way, it is a humanitariann crisis of epic proportions and it highlights how our national coverage of news is still very myopic. That was my bone of contention, all the other stuff is a whole other debate.

What is wrong with not being concerned with that which does not effects us?

I don't care about 1 million people wearing rags over their head who, in my opinion, haven't stepped out of the stone age and still build houses out of clay and mud. That's who I am. If you're stupid - you're stupid -nothing you can do about it . Doesn't mean everybody in the world has to care when something happens to you because you're stupid.

Hurricanes hit Florida all the time. I seldom ever care about them. I know businesses that operate there and I am more concerned about their businesses then them, because I already know these people know Florida, know what it brings and know where to go when a bad hurricane is bearing down on them.

The media will always be biased. That media which is not biased or comes off as being less biased to an indivdual merely caters to that person's tastes. I can solve that problem very easily.

Its called throwing away your TV, or turning it off when news comes on, and embracing the world and all freedom it provides.

Online news sources, RSS feeds - get the news that "matters" to you. So if you want to be inundanted with a billion sob stories about how 1 million people who decided to build clay houses are so poor and need everybodys sob sob effection and what not - sign up for the appropriate news feeds and alerts.

http://news.yahoo.com/rss - liberal conservative
http://www.cnn.com/services/rss/ extremely liberal / socialistic
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147142,00.html - Extremely Right (i think) Wing - but when i opened up the link it had a beautiful girl in a bra and said "buy 2 get 2 free"

uh... some of you people are hatefull as all hell. O_O

is the US sending any aid over there?

There's some real un-Christianlike sentiments being expressed here. "Do unto others..." doesn't stop at our borders.

uh... some of you people are hatefull as all hell. O_O

is the US sending any aid over there?

yes and yes

There's some real un-Christianlike sentiments being expressed here. "Do unto others..." doesn't stop at our borders.
Haha. I thought the whole point of today's American culture was to osterize anybody who associated God or Christian like behavior with anything related to America ;)

Do unto others as you would want them done to you does not apply to life. I've taught people, helped people who could and couldn't help themselves and have given up things so others could have things. I can honestly say that aside from the knowledge I don't have a single positive thing in my life that can lay claim to be being a benefactor of my actions, nor have I ever received anything positive from it. It is probably a big source of my cynicism and indifference why I am so cynical and in indifferent. If you live in a clay house you should not live in a earthquake ridden place.

uh... some of you people are hatefull as all hell. O_O

is the US sending any aid over there?
You seem to confuse indifference with hatred. I do not hate them. I am simply indifferent to idiocy.
If you go out on a bike route and you dont take a spare tube and you get a flat - that is your problem. There will be people who who will give you their only tube, people who help you patch it, people who drive on by, people who want to call you an idiot for not preparing etc.

I simply have little respect for countries that remain quagmired in a state of destitution. Most everybody else around the world was able to pull themselves out. Little or nothing to do with hatred. You want hatred, try the woman who threw her 3 kids into the san francisco bay. Now thats a target of hatred and utter disgust if one wants one.

Haha. I thought the whole point of today's American culture was to osterize anybody who associated God or Christian like behavior with anything related to America.

:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

Wouldn't want to have to clean up after that!

Anyway, yea I agree where is the news coverage? The scale of human suffering is daunting in Pakistan right now.

It's a cruel, cruel world. It's times like this you remember how lucky we are in the west. Depression, obesity and traffic congestion are but minor ailemants compared to starvation, huge natural disasters and human rights abuses.

When I sell my bikes (I'm moving to Ireland) I might donate a bit of money. Any recommendations? Red cross?

It's a cruel, cruel world. It's times like this you remember how lucky we are in the west. Depression, obesity and traffic congestion are but minor ailemants compared to starvation, huge natural disasters and human rights abuses.

When I sell my bikes (I'm moving to Ireland) I might donate a bit of money. Any recommendations? Red cross?

what? you can bike in ireland? it's not good enough for your bike? you think the IRA will steal it?

huh? O_o

what? you can bike in ireland? it's not good enough for your bike? you think the IRA will steal it?

huh? O_o

I need some money. I have a roadbike and a heavy cross country bike. The roadbike would get munched on the roads of ireland and the cross country bike would be slow as hell. That, and transporting two bicycles AS WELL as all my worldly belongings to Ireland would be a bit much for me to haul around strange airports when I'm half asleep.

I just want to point out, I almost had a heart attack reading this title... you're off by 1 order of magnitude..

uh... some of you people are hatefull as all hell. O_O

is the US sending any aid over there?

You'll notice something interesting if you look up which country gives the greatest percentage of what they have to international aid...

giving something to someone does not allow you the freedom to punish that someone...


plus i was talking about the few people here... not the country.

I don't watch the news on mainstream channels anymore, but I really feel for the people in Pakistan. Also, a couple thousand people just died in Central America, more dead than from Katrina, because of Hurricane Stan and noone seemed to care about or remember that either.

I just want to point out, I almost had a heart attack reading this title... you're off by 1 order of magnitude..

Fixed.



Pakistan was **** - California and Japan go through the same or worse year in and year out.

If by that you mean there are magnitude 7.6 earthquakes (or worse) in California and Japan year in and year out, you are quite simply wrong.

--J

I don't care about 1 million people wearing rags over their head who, in my opinion, haven't stepped out of the stone age and still build houses out of clay and mud.


Let's not forget the thousands of Hindis who died who don't wear rags over their heads. (And no, there are very little Sikh Indians there)


That's who I am. If you're stupid - you're stupid -nothing you can do about it . Doesn't mean everybody in the world has to care when something happens to you because you're stupid.

The true idiots are the Americans paying $500,000 to 1.1 million dollars to have a home on the St Andreas Fault in California. These Pakistanis, for the most part, don't have a choice... poverty does not give a family a whole lot of options regarding purchasing real estate .(especially if the head of the household is a woman in that socieity , but that is a whole other issue.) Criticise the government, don't fault the people who live under their rule.

… you are quite simply wrong.

And quite simple! :D

NYT reported yesterday that up to 3 million Pakistanis are now facing the upcoming Himalayan winter without adequate shelter, the nations of the world are in general lukewarm towards providing aid, not enough tents are currently available anywhere in the world to deliver to the region, many roads are still out, and winter weather will close the entire region by about December 1, so the ultimate death toll is likely to be a lot higher...

Did people in Holland really pay much attention to Hurricane Katrina, only after the fact, or are you more aware of the details regarding than your neighbors due to hanging around Bikeforums? How's the news coverage in Europe for Katrina compare to the Pakistan quake or the Sumatra quake/tsunami? I certainly hope the latter two are getting far more attention worldwide, although I can understand Katrina getting more attention in US news since it was a US issue.


I think I'm starting to get disaster burnout. Most of the attention around Katrina was media hype and government incompetence. The scale of death wasn't anything like that from the tsunami and doesn't compare to this new calamity.

The saddest thing of all is how some people use such tragedies for their own wicked purposes. It's all very sad.

Most world news was doing a lot of Katrina as well.

My general interpretation is that the tsunami was a really big deal, then katrina came along and got a similar amount of attention, though instead of focusing on dozens of thousands dead, this time it was more about the chaos and government incompetence. And really, this earthquake has now happened and the number of people dead or at risk is easily on the same scale of the tsunami.

Katrina was certainly in the world news - in my opinion more for the sensationalism than for the humanitarian disaster.

My input is BF, TV news (BBC, Dutch, US), british papers, and random internet. I try spread my bets :D

Anybody give money to aide groups doing work in Kashmir/Pakistan? Most university campuses around here have boothes for various charities that are taking donations, also many groups are collecting at area mosques. The Citizens Foundation -(TCF) is a reputable online organisation that is providing aide relief for both India & Pakistan regions of Kashmir;
http://www.tcfrelieffund.org/tcf/relief_fund/index.htm

I'm looking for an aid organization to give some dollars to that won't waste it like the red cross. I'm checking the above link out, and any others that people trust.

I'm looking for an aid organization to give some dollars to that won't waste it like the red cross. I'm checking the above link out, and any others that people trust.
Being good friends with someone who works on a contractual basis with FEMA I can agree with you that donating to the Red Cross is a waste (the stories I heard from him were unbelievable). They suck. College groups can be very effective but you know who the best is? The small local church organizations. They are the ones who actually put people on the ground even in the case of Katrina before it happened. I can't say I support any one in particular but since my parents tried to raise me Catholic and they donate to them the Catholic Charities is a good choice.

Could Bin Laden be one of the 79,000?