Shaken into perspective

Nepal, the country highest above sea level in the world, has been in the headlines since a large earthquake devastated it on Saturday.

Because Nepal is a tourist hub which hosts an Israeli embassy and Chabad House, and many Israelis travel there throughout the year -- most as backpackers and some for the purpose of becoming parents -- we all became honorary Nepalese this week. We are not the only ones. The French, Spanish, British and Americans are all following developments from their own perspectives, through the lens of how their own citizens are coping in the cities and villages and on the mountains. In the meantime, the number of locals who were killed continues to climb. One thousand, two, five thousand…

But, God willing, with luck, this time there will be no Israeli victims.

The story catching most of the headlines was understandably about the babies. The fathers of the babies, born to surrogate mothers, were initially stranded with their precious newborns, with dwindling supplies of diapers and food. They are being rescued and brought to Israel. This past week, the most famous new Israelis were those sweet babies born in Nepal.

So, without trying to rain on their parade, let us remember for a moment that an earthquake is a traumatic event, something like an atom bomb being dropped. It was experienced by an entire country, but shakes children the most. While we breathe a sigh of relief over the babies' safe arrival, we need to keep in mind that 2.8 million Nepalese children were directly or indirectly hit by this quake, according to figures released by UNICEF. Many children found themselves, in the blink of an eye, without a roof over their heads, parentless, with nothing. They will surely be traumatized for life.

And although Nepal is the world's highest country, it is certainly not one of the richest.

When an earthquake occurs in the Third World, the international community usually responds with a type of Pavlovian reflex. First there is a large swell of support for the efforts to help, after seeing the horrific images from the disaster area. Terrible events tend to photograph nicely. And then, slowly but surely (well, actually quite quickly), everyone returns to business as usual.

Thought needs to be given, however, to the next step: the rehabilitation phase. An estimated 20 years will be needed to recover from the earthquake that practically wiped out Haiti in 2010. Indonesia needed a decade to recover from the 2004 tsunami.

This is not merely about the reconstruction of buildings and homes, but the rehabilitation of an entire economy, of institutions, of life.

A country is first and foremost responsible for its own people. It is natural for any country to want to rescue its citizens. Israel is second to none in this regard. Has anyone seen any Iranian rescue planes-

Nevertheless, during one of the nightly newscasts on Tuesday, two Israelis complained they were not rescued fast enough. Pardon me? Did anybody force them to travel to Nepal? Hello, earthquake, natural disaster.

We need to understand that we are almost nothing in a story like this. Today it is trendy to talk about Nepal. In a few months most people probably won't remember how many people died there.

But for the locals, this earthquake will follow them their entire lives. Perhaps some of the surrogate mothers who gave birth to those sweet babies are now destitute; maybe some are no longer alive.

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