The Guardian: Gaza, Ebola, Iraq … are we approaching disaster overload?
Sam Jones, reporter

“Reflecting on the responses to the number of man-made emergencies detonating or still smoldering around the world earlier this year, from Syria to Ukraine and from Nigeria and South Sudan to Central African Republic (CAR), Kofi Annan appeared uncharacteristically weary. … ‘You sometimes have a feeling that the global community — and even the big powers — can only focus on one crisis at a time,’ the former U.N. secretary general said. … That was three months ago: before Ebola; before Isis’s genocidal march through Iraq; before the downing of MH17, and before war erupted in Gaza. Add to that tally the food crisis likely to affect 14 million people in nine East African countries, and you wonder what Annan would say today. … [F]or some, the number, scale, and complexity of the crises now vying for political prominence and publicity are unheard of…” (8/13).