Mark Steyn over at the Jerusalem Post has got an interesting article (sorry, free registration required for full thing) about "Events". Which near perfectly echos my own observation about the way things work in the world.

Money Quote:

"In the last days of the year there were two earthquakes – one in California, one in Iran. The Californian one measured 6.5 on the Richter scale, the Iranian one measured (according to its government) 6.3. The Californian earthquake killed two people and did little physical damage. The Iranian earthquake killed somewhere upwards of 40,000 people and reduced an entire city to rubble.

Everything fell down, not just the ancient stuff from 1,000 years ago, but the schools and hospitals from the Eighties and Nineties. "