Disaster Fatigue?
by digby
Did you know this? I didn’t:
The flooding just keeps getting worse and worse. On Saturday, the UN estimated that 4 million people were affected by the flooding in Pakistan. By Sunday they revised that estimate to 6 million people. Today, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that over 13 million people are affected. It is no wonder that a UN officials are saying this is bigger than the 2004 tsunami. In fact, that would make it bigger than the combined number of people affected by the Tsunami, Haiti earthquake and 2005 Kashmir earthquake…combined. Make no mistake: this is the worst natural disaster in recent history. Here is a map of affected areas from OCHA. That is alot of tragedy… [I]t is worth noting that as of 1 pm EST there is not a single, solitary mention of the biggest humanitarian disaster in recent history on the homepages of the Washington Post or New York Times.
I honestly don’t know why nobody gives a damn about this one. But we probably should, for more reasons than just the humanitarian tragedy, which is enough. But considering that this country is the focus of our foreign policy, the key to the Afghanistan war effort, the nexus of Islamic fanaticism and an unstable nuclear power, ignoring it would not seem to be a good idea.