According to the Pakistani government, the death toll from the recent earthquake has reached 73,000 now, and looks set to increase further as winter approaches and millions of people are left without shelter. Some villages have not even received any aid yet, almost a month after the earthquake hit, because the roads no longer exist and there are not enough helicopters.

And yet, it seems to me that public awareness of this disaster, at least here in the U.S., is shrinking to approximately zero. The difference in public attitudes to this disaster and the Asian tsunami at the beginning of the year, which resulted in an outpouring of support, is quite striking.

Is this a simple case of disaster fatigue, or is Pakistan just a little too close to Afghanistan to be on Americans’ sympathy radars?