While AU students were on fall break, a massive earthquake shook Pakistan and the Kashmir region bordering India. This area is far from structurally sound, and crumbling homes and buildings only added to the death toll, which is believed to be as high as 79,000. Sadly, it seems that this disaster did not get the response from the rest of the world it deserved.
In the U.S. we are still reeling from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and money is being funneled to the region and to the storm victims. Much of the media is still camped out on the Gulf coast. After the two storms, when many feared death tolls could reach tens of thousands, right here on our own soil, we were shocked and scared.
In December, we watched a region halfway around the world suffer the effects of a giant wave that washed away people, homes and cities. The media couldn't show enough of the devastation there.
Now, as people are dying from infection and starvation in Kashmir and Pakistan, it seems that we too easily turn away, and focus on our own problems. Aid money is being stretched far to cover the U.S, but to ignore the misfortune of others in their time of need is pathetic.
