December 7 Remembered...

       As this is the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombings it is important to remember the over 2,000 people who died for freedom. There is also another tragedy that happened on this day. On December 7, 1988 there was a strong earthquake in the Soviet Union or what is now the the country of Armenia (town of Spitak). I remember it making headlines at the time it happened though I seldom heard much about it after. The death toll was over 25,000, much of that was school children. 25,000 people is enough people to form a small city at least in the USA. Another way to put the number into perspective, the deadliest natural disaster in US history was a Texas hurricane in 1900 which killed 8,000, Hurricane Katrina killed about 1,833, and 9-11 killed just under 3,000. In no way do I intend to belittle any other tragedy and I can understand that a story in a far away country is not going to make headlines to the point a domestic story would. I can't help though to notice how the media coverage of a large death toll in less affluent countries tends to be rather skimpy. Armenia was actually a relatively large country at one time. It has some of the world's oldest buildings, it is one of the first countries to adopt Christianity, and it is the area where Noah's ark was found (on Mt. Ararat).

Mt. Ararat, 2006 Самый древний