The earthquake in Pakistan has killed 35,000 people, and made about two million homeless. Or rather, not just the earthquake. The earthquake, plus inequality, poverty, and undemocratic rule.
Earthquakes will destroy and kill however socialist we can make the world. But earthquakes which have been direct hits on big cities where many rich people live take a smaller toll.
The San Francisco earthquake of 1989 (7.1 on the Richter scale) cost 16 deaths. The Kobe (Japan) earthquake of 1995, measuring 7.2, cost 5,273.
In poorer cities, the Bam (Iran) earthquake of 2003, measuring 6.6, killed 30,000; the Izmit (Turkey) earthquake of 1999, measuring 7.4, killed 17,000; the Mexico City earthquake of 1985, measuring 8.1, took 10,000.
The Tangshan (China) quake of 1976, measuring 8.3, killed about 500,000. It was the deadliest natural disaster of the 20th century, but most people have never even heard of it.
The Richter scale is not a full measure of the natural impact of an earthquake. But imagine identical earthquakes hitting two cities.
In a city where buildings are designed to resist earthquakes, where emergency services are well-planned, and where officials have to submit to media and public scrutiny, the suffering will be much less than in one full of flimsy houses where the government cares little about emergency services, and where there are few or no media independent of the government to agitate and raise questions.
What hit the people of Pakistan was not just the earthquake, but the poverty, inequality, and lack of democratic accountability imposed on them by their government and its IMF advisers.
