Recent earthquakes in Taiwan, China, India and some parts of the United States have caused tremendous suffering.
The frequency of our hearing the word earthquake has perhaps deadened our response to the suffering caused by natural disasters.
Perhaps we have no reaction to these events because we are neither victims nor witnesses.
But consider the feelings of those who experience these disasters. Their suffering is massive.
Lives are lost, people are injured under mountains of rubble, and even though some survive they may have lost their loved ones, parents and friends. They must then try to stay alive in the face of food shortages, disease and bad water.
Hygiene in disaster areas suffers terribly, and illness spreads rapidly through the region, threatening the lives of those who lived through the initial catastrophe.