Quake toll rises towards 2,000 in Pakistan and India.. thank God, They're

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Not Americans!

That would be nearly as bad as Katrina!

By Mian Khursheed

MANSEHRA, Pakistan, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Rescuers dug out corpses of hundreds of children buried under their schools and found villages reduced to rubble on Sunday as the death toll from a huge earthquake in Pakistan and India rose towards 2,000.

Teams laboured with cranes and earth-moving equipment or used bare hands in driving rain in hopes of finding survivors trapped beneath shattered masonry from Saturday's quake. Scores were plucked out alive, but many more people were dead.

Some 400 children were killed at two schools in North West Frontier Province, where some 1,000 people were feared dead from the 7.6 magnitude quake, South Asia's strongest for 100 years.

"When the earthquake came it was like Judgment Day," said villager Fazal Elahi, recalling the horror of houses collapsing around him as he grieved quietly next to the body of his 14-year-old daughter.

<snip>

more:
Earthquake victim #?

Move along. Nothing to see here.

[malaise]

1. The Death toll in Central America

has also reached 2000 with the mudslides following Stan.

I do feel it for the parents of all those children - too sad.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

2. And yet...

And yet....


And yet...

I am ashamed.

I am sad.

We are so far away from where we should be as a people today.

[peacetalksforall]

4. I agree. I want to believe we are evolving, but it seems we are stuck

and even sliding backwards in moral mud.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

6. Spot on.

The news today has barely touched on this disaster.

[niallmac]

3. I wonder what $440plus billion dollars

in peace works around the world from a rich nation like America would look like?
Would we be able to do so much more right now when disaster strikes if all the resources we use for killing were used to help others.
(For that matter I wonder what just some of it would look like if it was spent on America...)
I wonder what would happen if we treated "Third World" people as if their lives and families and futures counted more than the minerals and food and oil we covet?
Would we be the best most awesome thing that ever happened to the planet?
Could we trade peacefully?
I know I am a silly dreamer but I do this a lot and it's good for my blood pressure.
I cannot imagine the misery now in the quake zone. I hope we can help.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. Do you think this administration will help anyone if it is not in their

best interest?