In light of this bidding war, our local paper came up with a really sobering fact: after the earthquake that levelled Bam, close to $1B was pledged in support by ou r collective governments. In reality, only about $20M appeared on the ground. The rest just vaporized. The only entities that could be counted on to follow through were the NGOs and some more structured development organisations like UNICEF.

The expectation is that the same will happen here. Once the last tourist is evacuated, attention will wane and the pledges will be forgotten.