Interesting tid bit of the day...

[lithera]

Jet Li was in the Maldives on vacation with his daughter during the tsunami. Apparently he was slightly injured while rescuing his daughter and getting them to safety. (A foot injury.) He was missing for awhile but he got somewhere safe and called his agent. I can't even imagine what it would have been like to be on Maldives... a lot of those islands are barely above sea level. Some of they may not exist anymore.

And did you see the story about Petra Nemcova, 2003 Sport Illustrated model? She clung to a palm tree for 8 hours with a crushed pelvis and multiple internal injuries as the water surged around her.

Then there was the womand and her husband who missed the whole thing until they came to the surface after their dive. She started helping people on her way to the American officials. When the found them they were in the lounge... The story is crazy.

If these are the stories that are getting out, how many more are there? Man.

Comments

[eggiebert.livejournal.com]

I don't quite understand why it's so much easier to feel sympathy for the folk in this natural disaster. Maybe there's just this indescriminate and neutral face that caused it, meaning we don't waste our energy on trying to lay blame and answer why. We only have room for sympathy.

[leiden.livejournal.com]

For me it's twofold. There's the fact that 9/11 had a centralized body count short of 5,000 vs the current death toll which has crested the 100k mark without slowing down. There's also the political aspect of it. Right now all we have is "people are dead". I'm not doubting and second guessing what the response is or asking whether or not it will be exploited politically and if it's going to be the catalyst for frightening future precedents to be set.

When the WTC went down in fire the only thing I heard was how we were going kill more people to make it right and that in turn made me angry at America and forced out my sympathy. In the current instance, with the utter randomness of the death, the only coalition of the willing that exists are people who just want to ease the pain. And that as you said, has left room for sympathy and for sorrow.

[eggiebert.livejournal.com]

Nature is cruel and the source of all life. Sometimes that duality is terrifyingly disturbing.