Environmental issues is a fairly hot topic recently, so I've decided to touch on it for the next few entries for this hypermedia course.
A strong earthquake hit Yushu, China on Wednesday morning. This region, which is near the Tibet border is very susceptible to siesmic movements. The 6.9 magnitude earthquake killed 400 people and injured thousands, of which many were buried alive. Approximately 20 children from an elementary school was reported buried in rubble. Rescue teams are on their way, but most have difficulty reaching the injured because of damaged infrastructure. The series of after shocks are said to cause more destruction and impede soldiers' ability to reach the wounded.
As I was reading the article, I was wondering how many others outside China would seriously reach out to the victims upon viewing this piece of news.
Natural disasters used to be rare, and whenever anything major happened, there would be extensive news coverage. However, in recent years, the rising number of major natural disasters seems to have desensitized the impact on people. People appear to be less concerned or non-chalent, unless the disaster is happening right at their doorstep.
On the other hand, we could argue that there are still many efforts worldwide to support disaster victims. A good example would be the recent Haiti earthquake where donations from all over the world poured into this poverty striken nation. However, the massive help garnered could be due to extensive media coverage. Then the next question would be, how long will the donations sustain the people of Haiti? What would happen after the funds are depleted? Is the world still so kind to continue supporting Haiti?
Taking my attention back to the earthquake in China, I was initially shocked that a major earthquake has struck a poor region again, where houses are mainly made of wood and earthen walls. However, a few seconds into reading the article, I thought to myself, "This is another earthquake." This makes me wonder what would happen to our world if more people were to take my viewpoint. Would this world become a place where there's no room for sympathy? Or is this just an effect due to the never ending number of natural disasters that are happening around us, which "normalizes" every other disaster?
This is a timely post Juls. You raise several tough questions. It certainly seems like major disasters are occurring more frequently in recent years. The scale of these disasters in terms of loss of life is depressing and difficult to comprehend at times.
ReplyDeleteAnd since your blog entry there was the huge volcano eruption in Iceland. Though there doesn't seem to be any loss of life, the economic and social cost could turn out to be staggering.
If you find any blogs or news stories that have an interesting angle on the issue, please try to link to them in future blog posts. You can also add images to your blog entries. We will look at how to do this in our next lesson.
thanks prof!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I read about the huge volcano eruption in Iceland and how much trouble it has caused, especially to flying routes into Europe region.
Perhaps I'll post on that or other major stories the next time. :)
thanks for the advice!