Puts life in perspective

Victor

Puts life in perspective.

http://home.eircom.net/content/reuters/worldnews/2256884?view=Eircomnet

Iran quake kills 20,000
From:Reuters
Friday, 26th December, 2003
By Parisa Hafezi

BAM, Iran (Reuters) - A pre-dawn earthquake has razed much of the ancient Silk Road city of Bam in Iran, killing more than 20,000 people and injuring tens of thousands more, government officials say.

About 70 per cent of the buildings in the historic city, a popular tourist spot some 600 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran, had collapsed and many residents were trapped under the rubble, state television said.

"Rescue workers have found more bodies. The figure is now more than 20,000," a senior government official said. The quake at about 5:30 a.m. (2 a.m. British time) on Friday measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.

Other officials said around 50,000 people were injured in and around the city, which, with its environs, had a population of some 200,000 people.

Bam was without water, electricity or gas as night fell and temperatures headed below freezing. Residents set fires to stay warm and made torches from palm branches for light as they dug with bare hands for survivors.

Bam governor Ali Shafiee told state TV: "The city of Bam must be built from scratch."

Bawling infants and dazed adults gathered in city squares, huddling against the cold under woollen blankets. Rubble-strewn pavements were lined with injured, some on intravenous drips.

State media said two hospitals had collapsed, crushing many of the staff, and the remaining hospitals were full. The injured were being ferried to neighbouring towns.

Reuters witnesses said many houses had been flattened.

Distraught relatives wept next to shrouded corpses. Hundreds of bodies were bundled into trucks. Mechanised diggers hollowed out trenches where the dead were buried quickly without rites.

"I have lost all my family. My parents, my grandmother and two sisters are under the rubble," said Maryam, 17.

One grief-stricken old woman smeared her face with dirt, only able to utter: "My child, my child".

GOVERNMENT ACCUSED

Angry people accused the government of doing nothing to help them and said they were still without tents, water or fuel.

Witnesses said the road to Bam was choked with ambulances and people desperate to find family members.

Houses in the date-growing area are traditionally made from mud-brick, making them vulnerable to earthquakes.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran needed search dogs, blankets and medicines from the world community.

Russia, Germany, Poland, France, Italy, the United States and other states were sending help, including doctors, medical supplies and rescuers with sniffer dogs and special equipment to locate survivors buried beneath rubble.

A large part of the ancient citadel was destroyed, Mohammad Ali Karimi, governor of Kerman province, where Bam is located, said. Dating back 2,000 years, it had fortifications, towers, buildings, stables and a mosque.

Bam is on the old Silk Road route between China and Europe used by merchants and travellers for centuries. It is a tourist spot with inns, a gymnasium, a theological school and bazaars.

The quake, a regular occurrence in a country crossed by major faultlines, struck when most residents were asleep.

In June last year, a tremor measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale hit northern Iran, killing at least 229 people and injuring more than 1,000.

Some 35,000 people were killed in 1990 when earthquakes of up to 7.7 on the Richter scale hit the northwest of Iran. Tehran was hit by a quake of about seven on the Richter scale in 1830.

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/2255376?view=Eircomnet

Irish Red Cross on stand-by to send aid
From:ireland.com
Friday, 26th December, 2003

The Irish Red Cross is on stand-by to send aid to victims of the earthquake that hit south-eastern Iran earlier today.

The Chairman of the Irish Red Cross, David Andrews has spoken to the Iranian Ambassador, HE Hossein Mirfakhar today and expressed his deepest condolences to the Iranians on their sad loss.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society has set-up two field hospitals and sent two helicopters to the city to help with the relief operation.

There are two million Red Crescent volunteers and 3000 staff available to the Iranian Red Crescent Society and since 1991 there have been approximately 1000 earthquakes in Iran , killing 17,600 people.

Mr Andrews said today that every assistance would be made available to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.

Blankets are available for transport to the afflicted area, while financial donations will be accepted by credit card through the Irish Red Cross website www.redcross.ie by telephone to Callsave 1850 60 70 70 or by postal order or cheque to the Irish Red Cross Iran Appeal, 16 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.

sunbeam

Indeed it does

mike65

I said to my mum words to the effect that something like this seems to happen every Christmas which is an exaggeration but something really terrible seems to happen...its business as usual for life and death.

Mike.

Lump

As I said to my mother this morning...... Sickened!


John


I have no compation.

kano476

thats depressing.

Emboss

**** happens

yellum

And yet more people die of starvation daily in africa.

The Number of infants worldwide who die of malnutrition every day: 40,000

15,000 people die of complications due to AIDS daily.

6000 are in africa.

1000 alone die in Nigeria from AIDS daily.

4000 people die a day from Malaria.

A rarity like an earthquake set against these figures puts even more things in perspective.

Happy Christmas. Does that turkey taste even nicer now ?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

oddly enough.. yes

Exit

Yeah, but don't you know that a Third World life doesn't equate to aan American or European life. I guarantee if an earthquake killed 20,000 in LA, it'd be more than a 3 minute spot on the news.

Lump

I dont know them.... I dont care. TBH......



John

Exit

I don't know your family. Mind if I laugh when they die?

D!ve^Bomb!

Originally posted by Lump
I dont know them.... I dont care. TBH......



John

i have to agree.. not in a bad way.. but when u see things on tv they dont seem like reality.. its hard to understand i guess,, but when ya hear stuff like this ya think 'holy ****', then when ya turn the channel, it doesn't matter anymore.. lots of people are like this,, i unfortunately am one of em:(

hamster

Hold on... forget all this this.... STOP PRESS.... 12 die in mud slide in California. I'm sure I'm missing 3 zeros somewhere...

mike65

I don't know your family. Mind if I laugh when they die?

I had a similair thought....

Mike.

Kold

Urgh, this turkeys dry!

bugler

It might be a harsh, cold attitude, but I didn't see him laughing anywhere in his post.

Exit

The word 'sickened' usually denotes a humourous attitude.

p

Originally posted by Lump
I dont know them.... I dont care. TBH......


Maybe you should try & learn to, if you were in the situation you'd hope others cared.

If people actually cared about these things more then the world would be a better place.

- Kevin

bugler

Ah, I missed the earlier post.

The word 'sickened' usually denotes a humourous attitude.

Hmmm. I wouldn't have known tbh. Kids these days...

Anyway, if that was an effort to spell 'compassion' he made, it's probably best that he keep his mind on his own problems.

Paddy20

Another shocking tragedy. May those who died, rest in peace, and may the survivors be granted the strength to cope with their grief.

P.

Lump

ctually SIckened tends to mean, Unlucky, **** Happens, life's a bitch etc etc. I dont find it funny, I just dont care. You can laugh at my family dying, but you know me..... Kind of . So it would be a pretty **** thing to do. And if you did it to me face I'd batter you. But as someone else said what about the millions dying of famine war etc etc all over the world every day..... DO YOU CARE ABOUT THEM? I think no, but a couple or thousand die from a quake OMFG!?!?!?!?! THE HORROR !>?!?!?!



John

Lump

Oh and to add salt to the wound, I dont care about any soliders etc etc that died in the war..... I didn't ask them to join the army/invade a country......



John

Barry Aldwell

Originally posted by Lump
I didn't ask them to join the army/invade a country

What if they're drafted? What if their NCOs are standing behind them with a rifle, forcing them to either fight or be killed?

Peace

I'm one of the MTv generation.....**** happens...nothing really got put into perspective for me....crap thing and all..just not life altereing here.

PiE

WAR, DEATH, DISEASE, FAMINE, AIDS, WAR, DEATH!

I look out my window and all I hear is crickets....