On the topic of poor planning for the Hajj Pilgrimage: Hajj pilgrimage: more than 700 dead in crush near Mecca; Stampede in Mina valley, the site of a vast tent city of pilgrims, leaves more than 800 others injured.

On the science of stampedes: What can science tell us about human ‘stampedes’?

The Diva did not there are experts in crowd safety and risk analysis. Both space constraints and human behavior are key factors in stampedes.  An expert says “It is all about math, management, and psychology.”  Actually that sounds quite complex.

Update on 10/3. From the Guardian, this personal account of a person at the Hajj Pilgrimage: In Mecca I saw little of Islam’s compassion, but a lot of Saudi Arabia’s neglect

Also from the Guardian on 10/4:  Hajj crush: how crowd disasters happen, and how they can be avoided. Mass panic? Stampedes? Nonsense, say the experts trying to stop another disaster like last week’s in Mecca: they’re failures of management, and they aren’t inevitable. So why aren’t they a thing of the past?