The Language of Disasters

Abstract

If the tower of Babel was a language disaster, disaster itself has a language. Whether act of God or act of man, disaster often calls for multinational assistance. The many governments, agencies, professions, and individuals from different parts of the world, representing different languages, specialties, religions, and cultures, yet all imbued with one and the same spirit of providing succor to the helpless, converge on the stricken land to help the victims, who are themselves of different language and background.