Global politics of quake relief

Iran itself has proved much more welcoming to international aid workers this time than it was in 1990, when another earthquake killed some 30,000 people.

"The government of Iran has done its best in this case to aid the relief effort," says Mueller. "It has been extremely cooperative, and waived all visa requirements.

"Politics are definitely a factor," he argues. "Recent events, like Iran's acceptance of nuclear inspections, have contributed ... to a general pattern showing that the situation in Iran has changed to a positive course of action."

Arab Gulf countries, clearly sensitive about Iran's potential role in a new Iraq, also showed generosity to their old rival Monday night, offering $400 million to the reconstruction of Bam.

The general public's response to a disaster, measured in contributions to emergency appeals that charities launch, often has less to do with politics and more to do with "something very particular that catches popular attention," says Herson.

The story of the Mozambican woman who gave birth in a treetop, high above the waters that had flooded her village in 2000, sparked a wave of generosity in Britain, for example.

But national governments, whose donations make up the bulk of aid to relieve the victims of natural disasters and other humanitarian crises, make much more political calculations, to judge by United Nations figures.

The most dramatic illustration this year came from Iraq, where international donors quickly came up with 91 percent of the $2.2 billion that the UN called for in an emergency appeal.

In Angola, by contrast, where millions of people are scrabbling for life in the wake of a devastating civil war, the UN appeal raised only half of the $313 million it sought. "At any one time, there is a skewing of aid towards the emergency in the political spotlight - this year Iraq - and all the rest receive significantly less," argues a recent report by Oxfam titled "Beyond the Headlines."

Some receive hardly anything, relegated to the status of 'forgotten emergencies' where the victims suffer from both hunger and donor fatigue: An appeal for funds to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Mozambique this year raised just $1.6 million - 12 percent of what the UN said was needed - while Zambia did even worse, receiving only 10 percent of the money the UN had asked for.

International donors were much more generous with Uganda, however, offering nearly 85 percent of the $126 million appeal. "Uganda is a success story," Herson says. "It is exemplary in the way it is dealing with HIV/AIDS, it has got its health and education systems together into a functioning administration, and it is being rewarded for its political successes."

And if humanitarian aid is not meant to reflect politics in that manner, it clearly does, argues the Oxfam report, citing the example of Afghanistan.

Before Sept. 11, 2001, six million Afghans "were in desperate straits due to conflict, poverty, and crippling drought," the report recalls, but the world did little to help them. "Then, suddenly, all major donors focused on the country because of its geopolitical implications," and stumped up over $1 billion in 2002, almost half the amount of money the UN had requested for 25 humanitarian crises worldwide.

Even in their plight, the citizens of Bam can count on the fact that they live near one of the world's flashpoints, in a strategically important country with which the world wants to engage.

And that, in Oxfam's words, "the humanitarian imperative to deliver aid where it is needed" most is not always the only criterion.

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