America's tsunami apathy

The U.S. government has donated a generous amount in the tsunami aid effort. Organizations such as Americares, UNICEF, USAID and Oxfam have received millions more from ordinary Americans. But despite this generosity, something seems to be missing from an otherwise appropriate response to a tragedy: empathy.

The Guardian Unlimited, a British newspaper, has a section on the front page of its online version, guardian.co.uk, entitled "What you've been reading." On Jan. 12, the first four of 10 articles listed concerned the tsunami disaster. Three stories lower in the list also pertained to the tsunamis. On the same day, at 8 a.m., the U.S. edition of cnn.com's page of the 10 "Most Popular" stories contained only one story pertaining to the tsunamis, and it was ranked below a story that ridiculed the wardrobe of Nicollette Sheridan of TV's "Desperate Housewives."

Global news hasn't been forgotten so fast in the U.S. since the results of the 2004 Olympic games.

There is no excuse for such an unconscionable lack of empathy. But if there was, it might be that before the Dec. 26 tsunamis, few Americans could even spell "tsunami." It might be that few could point out Indonesia on a map. The tsunami, however devastating, just didn't ring in our hearts as, say, a Floridian hurricane would. And southern Asia is such an unfamiliar land, it's no wonder we can't picture ourselves in the same situation. But what does it matter? We sent some money and wrote some news stories. We're done, right?

Wrong. If human empathy is capable of defying borders and nationality, then the tsunami should have had a greater impact on the hearts of Americans. With a death toll 40 times greater than that of Sept. 11, why didn't the tsunami have as lasting effect? The answer is that in most parts of the world, it did; in America, it did not.

The cause of this sympathy fatigue has been the subject of much speculation. On Dec. 29, Glenn Beck, a talk radio host who reaches millions of Americans on 160 stations nationwide on his show, "The Glenn Beck Program," offered the possibility that America is of the unique school of thought that natural disasters are unavoidable. In other words, we felt for the victims of Sept. 11 because they were our countrymen. But the great tragedy of the attacks was the human element: Had the terrorists loved their fellow man, the tragedy could have been avoided.

Conversely, the tsunami was not the result of terrorist attacks; it was an inevitable natural disaster, so it wasn't as tragic. A poll taken by the Associated Press reflects this: The amount donated by Jan. 7 was less than the amount donated in the days following Sept. 11. It is the human element, according to Beck, that constitutes a true calamity for Americans.

America was faced with indescribable loss on Sept. 11. With the death of our countrymen relatively fresh in our minds, we should be more empathetic towards the people of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. The fact that the earthquake that caused the tsunami was a natural disaster and not the work of humans does not diminish how devastating it was to the people of Southeast Asia. It is inexcusable that many Americans reserve their true sympathy exclusively for tragedies that fulfill an American set of criteria.