Update: Our CharityInChina.org service is distributing an appeal on behalf of Care for Children, which works in partnership with the Sichuan and Chengdu Civil Affairs government for disadvantaged children, for earthquake aid. More information here.

I spent all day today at a conference in Singapore for corporate social responsibility put on by Merrill Lynch. I mentioned during the Q&A for one of the speakers about the earthquake in China and I saw a few incredulous stares and found out afterwards why I was receiving those (I thought my pants zipper was down): three separate people came up to me afterwards and asked why I mentioned an earthquake in China and what that was all about. Seems though it had only happened 22 hours prior to my mentioning it at the conference, the cyclone in Myanmar was still receiving much more attention and people weren't tuned into the disaster in China. It's not that there isn't a plethora of media about the earthquake — I see on the front pages of the BBC and NY Times that the earthquake is the centerpiece.

But on the other side, what is causing so much more foreign attention about the earthquake now versus the low amount of attention the devastating annual floods in China cause in the foreign press? Is it because of the Olympics? Or because of attention already on China over the past few months with the torch run problems? Is it because the annual floods are unfortunately expected, while the earthquake — a natural disaster in as much the same way — was unexpected?

Or is it because, as CNN mentioned, one of their journalist colleagues in Beijing was personally affected because his family was evacuated from their apartment after the earthquake. Must a foreign journalist in China be directly affected by a natural disaster for the foreign media to take notice? If so, AP and Thomson Reuters should open offices on the banks of the Yangtze.