We've been watching the tsunami coverage, as people the world over have, with horrified awe. How does daily life continue after a tragedy of this magnitude with the lingering nuclear threat hovering like a poisonous storm cloud?
How do people view the source of destruction after a tragedy like this? Can the sight of the ocean ever be beautiful again?
There's a photo of toddlers in a boat with a woman who looks like their teacher. She is wearing a uniform similar to the ones Korean teachers wear. Looking into their distraught and traumatized faces, you wonder if, and hope that, they will see their parents again.
Today, a number of my students were worried by a text messaging hoax which stated that radiation from Japan would spread to Korea by 4pm today. While their fears, in this case, were unfounded, they mirror the fears of the region where people are wondering what the tragedy will mean for them. It is unclear how the environmental and economic impacts of the disaster in Japan will reverberate in Asia and in the world.
One six-year old girl said, "Japan is blocking us. If Japan wasn't there, the tsunami would have hit us." An amazingly astute observation.
Today, I asked one class to write speeches about how the human eye works. One of the questions was: if you were blind, what would you miss most about seeing? The majority of students responded: if I was blind, I would miss seeing the faces of my parents, the faces of my family, the faces of my friends.
Watching the tsunami coverage, I saw a man desperately searching for his wife, trying to pick out her face in crowded rescue shelter.
So many loved and beautiful faces, never to be seen again.
How do people view the source of destruction after a tragedy like this? Can the sight of the ocean ever be beautiful again?
There's a photo of toddlers in a boat with a woman who looks like their teacher. She is wearing a uniform similar to the ones Korean teachers wear. Looking into their distraught and traumatized faces, you wonder if, and hope that, they will see their parents again.
Today, a number of my students were worried by a text messaging hoax which stated that radiation from Japan would spread to Korea by 4pm today. While their fears, in this case, were unfounded, they mirror the fears of the region where people are wondering what the tragedy will mean for them. It is unclear how the environmental and economic impacts of the disaster in Japan will reverberate in Asia and in the world.
One six-year old girl said, "Japan is blocking us. If Japan wasn't there, the tsunami would have hit us." An amazingly astute observation.
Today, I asked one class to write speeches about how the human eye works. One of the questions was: if you were blind, what would you miss most about seeing? The majority of students responded: if I was blind, I would miss seeing the faces of my parents, the faces of my family, the faces of my friends.
Watching the tsunami coverage, I saw a man desperately searching for his wife, trying to pick out her face in crowded rescue shelter.
So many loved and beautiful faces, never to be seen again.
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