Because it is a world event — that is, because it affects the West — it is regarded as not just a natural disaster. It is filled with historical mean… - Susan Sontag

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Because it is a world event — that is, because it affects the West — it is regarded as not just a natural disaster. It is filled with historical meaning. (Part of the self-definition of Europe and the neo-European countries is that it, the First World, is where major calamities are history-making, transformative, while in poor, African or Asian countries they are part of a cycle, and therefore something like an aspect of nature.)