As you may have heard, Typhoon Haiyan was one of the worst and most destructive natural disasters ever recorded. Whole cities and islands have been wiped clean almost as if it was the second coming of the flood that cleansed the Earth from Genesis. Sons have been picking out their mothers from the ruble, people have been tripping over bodies littered across the streets, workers have been evacuating thousands of unidentified bodies in body bags, relatives have been cut off.
The current death toll is around 3,000 and counting. The Filipino people are strong; they are resilient, but we can't recover without help. I wish I could help out there but, in the meantime, I'll be praying for those that are. Our country may not be big or powerful but we're part of this world too.
During our Persepolis presentations, Lina gave a heart wrenching presentation about the Peace Corps. Many of us probably thought, after seeing her photos, that we wanted to make a change. Well, this is our chance. Even the smallest things can make the biggest difference.
"I don't know much about the Philippines, but I know that whenever there are people in need, the world needs to come together to help. We are all one community and I fully support your message in this post. May the Avatar help those affected from the Typhoon. Oh wait, that Avatar is in my world..."
Thank you for writing this, Jeremy,
ReplyDeleteIf you can find any way at all for our class to contribute relief to the people in the Philippines, please tell me and we'll try to do it -- maybe that could be the final??
also, I appreciate your bringing up the Bataan (I'm not sure how to spell it) Death March. I have seen a whole film about it, and I think all human should feel ashamed for this horrible evil perpetrated by other humans.
There is a book that treats it indirectly. It's called Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko and is told from the point of view of a Pueblo Indian who was a soldier in the Philippines in WWII and saw some of the horrors and is haunted by nightmares, etc.