The week before last El Salvador, last week and this India.
The reported death toll following the massive earthquake in the Indian state of Gujarat is 15,000 and rising. By the time this newspaper is being read, it could well have doubled.
The quake's epicentre was in Gujarat, a heavily-industrialised and heavily-populated state on India's north-western coast. The regional capital, Ahmedabad, is a densely-packed city of some 5 million people. It is in urban centres such as this that the estimated 7.9 earthquake was felt with most devastating effect.
Over recent days, we have witnessed heartbreaking footage of the continuing rescue efforts. Anxious relatives friends and family members provide the angst-ridden backdrop for the cameras, as they await news of their loved ones.
And then in a few weeks it will all be over as far as the Western media are concerned. Yet, to some degree, it is only then that the real work will begin. If more than 15,000 people have already died, you can be certain that thousands upon thousands of homes have been destroyed. Those made homeless by the quake, may still be homeless when the cameras have departed.
People's livelihoods will be destroyed, food in short supply, water and sanitation systems collapsed. All in all, the perfect breeding ground for disease.
Concern, along with other agencies, will be there after the cameras have gone home. Indeed, in November 1999 Concern responded quickly to the "supercyclone" that hit the Indian state of Orissa. We're still there today, still working to reestablish a degree of normality in thousands of shattered, impoverished lives.
And yet, it is a well established fact that natural disasters hit the poorest hardest. Floods and earthquakes may be experienced in countries such as the US, but they do not devastate with the same deadly regularity as they do in places like El Salvador and India. The reasons are obvious.
Poorer people are invariably crowded together in bad housing. Already subsisting on a limited food supply, they are more vulnerable in the aftermath of such crises. Equally, one does not often hear of cholera epidemics in the aftermath of a flood, or earthquake in the developing world.
Indeed, global urbanisation is occurring fastest in areas where the risks of natural disaster are greatest: areas known to be prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, landslides and other disasters.
The Pacific Rim, referred to by geologists as the "ring of fire" because of its propensity for earthquakes and volcanoes, is the most rapidly urbanising area on earth.
A study by Martin Degg of Chester College in the UK found that 40 of the 50 fastest growing cities in the world are in earthquake zones.
This terrifying vulnerability to disasters has already been well documented by the International Federation of the Red Cross. In its 1999 World Disasters Report, it was pointed out that: "The poor, forced to live on marginal land in urban and coastal areas where jobs are concentrated will suffer most as the planet warms and disaster strikes - 96 per cent of all deaths from natural disasters already happen in developing countries."
The report also highlighted another alarming, and equally well established fact: across the world aid budgets have been in virtual freefall over the last 10 years. Since 1990, for example, aid to the world's poorest region (sub-Saharan Africa) has declined by almost 29 per cent.
More alarming is the fact that it was the countries with the greatest debt burden that have seen the greatest fall in aid contributions. And this has occurred against the backdrop of a huge rise in the prosperity of the already wealthy.
While income per head has risen by $16,000 (£13,675) per annum, since 1960, aid budgets have increased by just $3 per head over the same period. Arms spending still devours 10 times as much as the global aid budget.
These figures - from a report recently issued by Concern - testify to a shocking and disturbing abdication of responsibility, on the part of the world's wealthy nations.
As the Red Cross report pointed out, "The divergent dynamics of debt and globalisation are leaving the world's poorest behind - paralysed by lack of resources, education, prospects or security."
Disaster preparedness and response cost money. When in place - as in the developed world - these systems save lives. But when the time, energy and resources of the developing world are spent playing catchup, running just to stand still, the consequences are obvious.
David Begg is chief executive of Concern.