The Earthquake Post

The Earth has been quite unstable these days. Between the cyclone in Myanmar, the earthquake in China and the volcano eruption in Chile, I'm afraid that natural disasters have become more than just an annual event. My friends, maybe the end is near.

I keep thinking maybe we have used too much of the earth's fuel and its energy has been drained to a point that the earth itself is shriveling like a grape turning into a raisin. The inquisitive person in me asks why? What is the difference between a cyclone and a typhoon? Can cyclones be created artificially as weapons? Can they be manipulated or guided using cold or hot air? Anyhow, 80,000 people has dies because of the cyclone and yet the Myanmar government had been refusing help from foreign countries. A friend who went back says that their government is crazy, there are signs hanging around asking their citizen not to ask and accept help from foreigners. They rather see their people die than having foreign forces come into their country. And if you've previously fled from the country and come back to help, you'd be arrested by the secret police. Crazy people...

Earthquakes are different. Looking at the Wikipedia global plate motion graph the earth seems to be moving toward the Asia side of the pacific ocean, which would probably explain the earthquake and the tsunami. At times, I feel very disconnected with mainland China. I've grew up with my family in Hong Kong and have heard horrific stories from my grandmother about the communists and the revolution. My passport won't even allow me in the country without applying for a traveling visa and I've only been in the country once. So although horrible to say, I don't have particularly strong feelings for the earthquake victims.

But it does make me feel bad to know that a lot of elementary school collapsed, a lot of kids died and a lot of people are still trapped underneath debris. I remember having to read a paper at school about a 7.9 earthquake in Tang Shan back in 1976 and 250,000 died in that incident. People has been reported that a lot of people are scarred for life by the earthquake. Death of friends and families, some are disfigured, some can't eat any sweet stuff for the rest of their lives because the first thing they eat after they have been rescued is sugar water.

This Sichuan earthquake at the same magnitude has far less casualties because it is more suburban. The death toll right now is at 23,000 which can still increase to 50,000 because of the missing people. China has been having a rough year, the leaded toys, the Tibet conflicts, air pollution, Olympics boycotts, and now an earthquake, I wonder how the Olympics would plan out. They had such high hopes that the event would raise China's reputation, but I think reputation is the last thing that they should be concerned about now.