Tragedies: How two nations count...

Having been in India and US for a numbber of years and seen how the two nations report tragedies I could not escape noticing the difference.

In early 2001, I remember my American colleague telling me in grave tone that there had been a strong earthquake in Gujarat and about 1000 people were dead. My nonchalance irked him. I told him I would be really happy if the death toll was just 1000. As it turned out it was about 20000 according to estimates.

Then in Spetember of that year I had a chance to see how US reacts and reports tragedies. The first reports regarding the attack on Pentagon said over a few thousand had died and over the next few days it kept dropping to a few hundreds to finally somewhere over 200.

I have seen the same being repeated when the Tsunami hit India and Hurricane Katrina hit the US.

I am not sure which style of reporting is better. The Indian way downplays the tragedy while the American one blows it out of proportion. Maybe, blowing it out of proportion allows to mobilize action and get aid. But, I would rather have something closer to the actual.