Leading Article: A flood of sympathy, sometimes

It makes for a stark contrast. Two lethal forces of nature have cut a swath across two different regions of the globe in the past week. Yet while the impact of Hurricane Gustav on the southern states of America has grabbed the world's attention, the catastrophic floods in the Indian state of Bihar have barely registered on the international radar. What makes the discrepancy even starker is that the Bihar disaster has so far been considerably more destructive, killing hundreds and leaving more than a million people in this desperately poor region homeless.

There are, of course, practical reasons why the plight of the southern US has been more comprehensively covered by the world's media than the inundated villages of Bihar. It is much harder for journalists to get to this remote part of India than it is to New Orleans. The world also had ample forewarning of Gustav, with meteorologists tracking its progress hour by hour through the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. But there was no warning when the Kosi river broke its banks on the Nepal border. The South Asian monsoon rains had been unusually severe, but no one could predict that such a disaster was about to strike.

Related articles

• An evening of hot dogs, beer – and howling winds
• Aid finally comes to flood-ravaged Bihar as risk of disease mounts
• Search the news archive for more stories

There are obvious political reasons for the international interest in Gustav, too. The response of the White House to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans three years ago laid bare the organisational incompetence and skewed priorities of the Bush Administration. The world is understandably concerned to see that history does not repeat itself.

But it would be dishonest to ignore some of the darker reasons for the discrepancy in the media coverage of these two disasters. One is a failure of empathy in the West. People can envisage themselves stranded in New Orleans, but not a village in Bihar. And then there is the sad reality that, even in our globalised age, lives lost in the developing world are regarded as less newsworthy than lives lost in the rich world. Even when subject to the undiscriminating violence of nature, it would appear that all men and women are nothing like equal.