It has not just been one disaster, but instead is disaster heaped upon disaster three times over. First the earthquake, then a Tsunami, and now the growing Nuclear crisis. Just one is a national catastrophe, but all three together is truly hard to grasp. This is not a story of anonymous numbers in a far away place, its about people, just like you are me.
It is times like this that brings out both the best in people and also the worst. The kooks quickly rush in spouting nonsense about super moons being the cause, or simply religious crap about the wrath of made-up gods, but I don’t propose to rant about them now. Instead I wish to simply focus upon the very human factor here.
This is not a numbers game, these are people we can all empathise with, for they are us and we are them, we are all related and have a common ancestor. There is a common belief in some minds that only the religious can empathise with others, but it is times such as this that such myths are washed away by the stark realities of this human tragedy.
In Today’s UK Telegraph, Julian Ryall writes from Ishinomaki …
The atmosphere in the room on the third floor, where 30 children whose parents simply disappeared when the tsunami swept through the town, is very different.
Viewed through the window, the children sit more still and are apparently engrossed in books or card games. They are watched over by other relatives or teachers and we are not allowed to enter or speak with them. Understandably, they do not want their charges to have more reminders of the disaster that has befallen them.