The Invisible Earthquake – PLSC 359: Global Governance

Last Saturday, April 16, 2016, Ecuador suffered one of their greatest earthquakes in over 60 years, with a magnitude 7.8 and an aftershock of 5.5. The last earthquake in this country, to this scale, was in 1949, when it killed 5,000 people.

Similarly, in 1987 there was a 7.2 earthquake which led to the death of 1,000 people. The country is struggling in the week after, despite sending troops and police officers in mass to the three most affected cities: Manta, Portoviejo and Pedernales. As of now, they have found 480 people who lost their lives, in addition to over 4,000 injured. The current struggle is lack of resources for the survivors and the rescuers. For example, there is a lack of water, food, shelter, and bathrooms. Some rescuers received a stipend to buy food, but there is no where left to buy food as all buildings near the epicenters were leveled. Moreover, the effects of El Niño are causing increased rain, making rescue efforts difficult. As Ecuador is a small country, many are saying that nearly everyone in the country knows someone affected by the tragedy.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/19/americas/ecuador-earthquake/

My concern is not only for the victims and the citizens of the country, but the lack of knowledge abroad about this earthquake. I knew when it happened through a notification on my phone, but there was little discussion after the fact, which leads to less supplies and relief personnel sent to Ecuador. I question whether this is due to the fact that Ecuador is a relatively stable country, compared to many Latin American countries, and as thus it slips through the cracks. In the present day, people (myself included) seem almost numb to tragedy. I do not want to say this is a lack of compassion. However, for my generation, we grew up in a world of constant tragedy, both human generated and naturally generated, which makes death in mass quantities nearly the norm. The fact that I write that mass death is nearly a norm surprises me, but when I was typing these words I found truth in them. It seems our society is headed even further in a direction that not only does not value human rights, but also has a lack of compassion for human life. If this continues, it has the possibility to lead to a world in which I would not want my children to grow up.

Sarah Iversen says:

April 29, 2016 at 9:26 pm

I think this is a perfect example of realist politics and the idea of self-interest. Unfortunately, it seems apparent that the United States and the resulting media only cover issues that are pertinent to the interests of the United States. Ecuador does not pose enough interest or relatability to make it a newsworthy event. This reminds me heavily of the media’s coverage of ISIS attacks across the world. While we mourn and change our profile pictures to commemorate those killed in France and Belgium, the attacks in the Middle East go relatively unreported. Those attacks are foreign to us, even when the number killed is higher than those we commemorate. We briefly touched upon in class how a feeling of cultural closeness makes these events more personal. Environmental disasters also play out in this way. It is sad that the media is like this, but they cannot cover everything and they pick what they think will impact the most readers. While it creates a double standard, I do not foresee our coverage of world events changing anytime soon due to selfish interest.