Some thoughts on the recent earthquake

Natural disaster is fair, it kills everything: human or animals. However, what human beings could do and have done can really make a big difference. An originally nameless volunteer’s death while saving lives of the young and weak exposed the greatest humanity of all. Reportedly, he had long been involved in charity works based on his track records. He had always wanted to say low profile and let his actions spoke for himself. I don’t think he would consider himself as a hero. I think that giving his life for this mission was purely an accident, and he is certainly not a martyr who was somehow portrayed by the government or other interesting parties which hijacked his story for their own gains. Shame on them! Man! He didn’t wanna die! He had no intention to give up his life; it is purely his humanity act of saving life that coincided with an accident that caused his death. I’m sure he is a life-loving person, that’s why he tried his best to save lives and in turn by only staying alive that you can continue to help others. Regardless, his life story is certainly a valuable lesson for self-reflection purpose to the people in our money-grabbing, materialistic society that is polluted with distorted values. Wish him R.I.P.

Based on what I saw on TV and read in the news, I think the government still has a long way to go to improve its rescues efforts. Why can foreign expertise and equipment are rejected? Some people suspected that it may have to do with a geopolitical sensitivity issue, I don’t know if that’s true. But, life is precious! A country is only worth to be loved if she loved her people. Yes, it could be a chicken-and-egg scenario, but still. The big guy always has the upper hand to take the lead.

I think media like to see political leaders rushed to the destruction scenes as early as possible, that shows that they care. Don’t get me wrong that I do think they should be there. However, what I found appalling is what I saw on TV that rescue workers stopped their actions and simply standing there, surrounding the leader, listening to his speech and chapping hands. Come on! We are talking about saving lives here, every minute counts! Yes, the leaders were undoubtedly giving encouraging speeches for boosting morale which were nice gesture, but I don’t think that should make everybody stop what they should be doing. Going to hospital to meet the victims, which would be enough. Just seeing the leaders at the site watching from a distance at grand scale, which would be enough. Not making everyone stop! I just think that has shown, at least superficially on TV that, what is more important to the people involved. If that’s true for what I’ve seen, they need a lesson to learn what their priority should be.

Furthermore, I’m no expert in rescues mission or logistic. However, I was quite surprise to see the absence of helicopters there to load supplies and personnel to different sites. Based on all the statistics about the financial well-being of the country, I’m pretty sure they can afford fleets of helicopters. How come there were so few of them? I only see trucks, simple hand tools, and personnel on foot. When you have broken roads, what’s better than airborne?

Also, they should lift the restrictions to let more journalists and reporters to report there on the ground. I understand that is a sensitive issue there. However, I still believe that the growth of investigative journalism and free press is important to a country. Yes, the regime may consider that they are double-edged sword, cuz they would challenge policies. However, improvements would only be fostered by exposing the bad and the ugly. Being able to continuously improve people’s lives is magic key to the longevity of staying in power, regardless of what political system a country is running.