U.S. envoy: Myanmar deaths may top 100,000
The very obvious thing to think in light of so many dead is to realize the minimal damage sustained here. But it’s hard to do that even though the numbers speak for themselves. It’s unconscionable to compare victims of disasters yet it is almost the first thing that pops into many people’s heads. It happens instantly. Comparisons between Louisiana and Mississippi, comparisons between fires in San Diego and floods in New Orleans. People do it all the time, not saying it’s right. Not saying we shouldn’t fight to build adequate flood protection. Not saying we shouldn’t demand better and more.
Though it does cause one to stop and think (once again) how thankful he should be to live in a developed country. Not so much America or the West (because there is a strong stigma attached to bragging about one’s country though it happens all the damn time), but simply living in a country that is developed socially, economically and structurally. Perhaps this flies in the face of images during Katrina that showed flooded victims standing on their roofs but, they had roofs to stand on and for many, those roofs saved their lives.
Hurricane Katrina swept through a heavily populated delta region the same as Cyclone Nargis swept through the Irrawaddy Delta. Is there a Weather Channel there? Contraflow? Mandatory Evacuations? Comfort Inns? Fema? Army Corps of Engineers?
All the recessions, crooked politicians, dead fetuses, foreclosures, high gas prices and crime rates here in the West pale in comparison to Myanmar. Aid in New Orleans came late at the expense of lives but it did indeed come.
I’m not trying to take the “better them than us” path here. I just wish, as I hear daily about how awful it is here in the United States (often from media and on the Internet but sometimes from friends), that people would realize the percentile in which many of us live within.
Often I feel like a fortunate son.
varg, i like the last line. I agree with you on this post.
In the discussion on the effects of global warming, it is often pointed out that the citizens of the developing world will bear the brunt of the impact. Not that either storm is directly attributable to GW, but this is a pretty good demonstration of that.
Glad to see a NOLA blogger actually commenting on the Burmese storm beyond snarky Laura Bush comments (of which I am guilty of making too).
I had the same realization, that faults and all, we’re extremely lucky to live where we do. While the Feds didn’t help us much, they: 1) didn’t actively seek to deny us *all* aid; and 2) didn’t hinder the private sector (Wal-Mart, Lowes, HD, etc.) from continuing to function.