Avez-vous lu le Time Magazine de cette semaine? On y trouve un texte extrêmement intéressant sur la catastrophe qui a frappé l'Asie (page 56). Le titre: The Class System of Catastrophe. L'auteur: Jeffrey D. Sachs, directeur du Earth Institute à l'université Columbia. Le propos: face aux désastres naturels, il y a deux sortes de victimes, les pauvres et les riches. Les riches peuvent se protéger, alors que les pauvres en prennent toujours plein la gueule.
Un extrait (en anglais):
«If the tsunami had hit rich regions instead, the loss of life would have been vastly lower. While all of us are vulnerable to the furies of nature–earthquakes, droughts, floods, epidemic diseases, blights and pests–these scourges systematically claim the lives of the poor in vastly greater numbers than they do the rich. (…)
What the rich world suffers as hardships the poor world often suffers as mass death. The rich, unlike the poor, can afford to live in fortified structures away from floodplains, riverbanks and hillsides. The rich, unlike the poor, have early-warning systems–seismic monitors, weather forecasts and disease-surveillance systems.
The rich, unlike the poor, have cars and trucks that enable them to leave on short notice when a physical disaster threatens. And rich countries, unlike poor ones, can quickly mobilize food, drinking water, backup power generators, doctors and emergency medical supplies in the aftermath of disaster.
If rich countries continue with business as usual, responding generously to the current disaster but failing to address the dire underlying situation of the world's poor, the world will repeatedly confront the tragic arithmetic of life and death.»
Bref, une chronique à lire.