By Tom Trewinnard

Every so often, as you listen to your iPod on shuffle, you will hear a song, a lyric, a word that will seem so perfectly poignant that you wish you could tell someone. More often than not, you’re on a bus or a train or a plane, earphones in, and there’s nobody around who can share your moment. I’m currently in a painfully anonymous airport for a soul crushingly long layover – and I find myself in this very predicament.

On the plane here I was snoozing while listening to my Zune (yes, I’m that guy who refuses to buy an iPod) when I was startled awake by the abrasive electronic beats of Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, a moderately little known British hip-hop duo. Thou Shalt Always Kill is their most famous work and it was this that aroused me from my slumber. The song is a kind of remix of the 10 commandments, rapped by Mr. Pip over the top of the aforementioned abrasive beats. The content oscillates between humorous critiques of pop culture (Thou shalt not pimp my ride, Thou shalt not shake it like a Polaroid picture) and political and social commentary (Thou shalt not buy Nestlé products, Thou shalt not steal if there is a direct victim).

In amidst the wit and froth, one line – one tragically poignant line – hit me like a tonne of bricks:

Thou shalt give equal worth to tragedies which occur in non-English speaking countries as to those which occur in English speaking countries.

You see, I’m in Bahrain, about to board a flight to Karachi, Pakistan. Maybe you’ve already heard, but just in case you haven’t here are some stats which shed some light on the devastation caused by flooding over the last month in Pakistan:

• 17 million people affected
• 1.2 million homes destroyed
• 5 million homeless

Are we, in Europe and the US, giving this tragedy – the devastation of which has been assessed by the UN as worse than that experienced in Haiti after the earthquake last year, and worse than South East Asia following the 2004 tsunami – equal worth to tragedies which occur in our countries? If not, why not?

Try to imagine 5 million people, made homeless in the space of weeks. That’s over 500,000 more people than reside in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Homeless. In a country where over 60% of the population lives on under $2 a day.

The number of people who are suffering in Pakistan right now is simply staggering.

I have no real idea what I will find as I arrive early tomorrow morning, but I know that the Karachi I left behind on my last visit less than a year ago will be a very different city tomorrow.

Thou shalt, thou must, give equal worth to tragedies which occur in non-English speaking countries as to those which occur in English speaking countries.

Related posts:

1. Thou Shalt Not Be So F#@ken’ Dumb
2. Thirteen Days
3. Fayyad’s Jewish Fatwa: Thou Shalt Be Smarter Than Thy Parents
4. THR33 DAYS
5. Homeless Group Sues Apple