When it rains...

It pours.

Myanmar hasn't had a good calendar year. Between unrest though a struggle for democracy back in the fall and the death of at least 22,000 people due to a cyclone, it hasn't been a good calendar year.

A couple nights ago, while working on a paper, I'd periodically check in on the headlines on Yahoo! to kill some time. As hours past, I saw "Cyclone in Myanmar kills 200," become "Cyclone in Myanmar kills at least 1000" in a matter of an hour. I was watching as the news was slowly grasping at the reality of what had happened. Now, a day after the fact, the number climbed all the way up to 22,000.

Look back at the number I put up: 22,000. Do you understand the magnitude of that number? That's a lot of human lives. Let me put that in context. The September 11th attacks claimed 2,974 dead with another 24 missing. The worst American natural disaster in recent memory, Hurricane Katrina, claimed 1,836 lives with another 705 missing and hundreds of thousands displaced. The cyclone in Myanmar took more than 10 times the amount of lives Katrina did, and on top of that, up to 41,000 people are still missing and around a million people are homeless/displaced. Remember, this is in Myanmar not the United States- two and a half years isn't enough time in the United States to have "healed the wounds" of Katrina- how long will it take to recover in Myanmar?

This has to be one of the worst natural disasters in recorded human history (actually, it isn't- mental_floss made a list of the 10 worst). Is it me or do we see something like this happen every year or so? It feels to me people are less phased by this type of news- that is a very bad thing.

For those of you that do, pray for Myanmar.

In dumbfoundedness,
Greg