HONG KONG — Television pictures tell terrible stories of the week: swirling floodwaters gobbling up people, cattle, homes, bridges, communications systems and threatening up to 20 million people in Pakistan; torrential rains triggering landslides in northwestern China; while dense smog suffocates Moscow, caused by unprecedented temperatures of 39 C and wild fires around the Russian capital.
The rest of the world watches as if mesmerized, giving only token sums of aid, while lives and livelihoods are being swallowed whole as the destructive power of the monsoon rains and floods ravage Pakistan and China.
We — the world — have been here before and we will no doubt be again as natural disasters, earthquakes, floods, drought, cyclones, fires, volcanic eruptions, and disease epidemics strike suddenly. It is time now for the world to stop watching and to start doing.