Nepal’s Earthquake: Nature, Not Karma

By Yudhanjaya Wijeratne –April 27, 2015 

Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

ByApril 26th, 2015. A terrible thing happened. An earthquake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, struck just near Kathmandu. Thousands were buried under clouds of dust and rubble as their homes collapsed around them. It was followed by aftershocks, one of which hit at 07 AM, measured 6.7 on the scale and shook buildings in New Delhi. As of the time of writing, over 2,500 people have died. The bodies are still being dug up.

That’s a nice set of numbers, isn’t it? If you can imagine Nepal as it is now, then I envy your imagination. What I’ve done is reduce 2,500 lives to nothing more than a few lines on a screen.

Because I, like most of the world, have not witnessed the carnage first-hand. I’ve seen them in photos hastily uploaded from phones, from people sharing photos of their loved ones begging for information, from a Facebook notifications marking my friends as “safe”. Thousands of people woke up this morning, logged a status along the lines of “Thoughts and prayers to those affected by the earthquake in Nepal” and got on with their lives. Movin’ on, guvnor. Stayin’ alive.

But the online space frequently brings out the worst in people, not the best. Social good check-ins are harmless. Some people, though, apparently decided that Nepal’s earthquake was karmic justice for the sacrifice of 5,000 buffaloes for a religious festival held last year. Comments were made on everything from the nature of the Hindu gods to the the spectacularly bitchy nature of karma.

What do you say to people like this?Read More