While the world is looking at the news, amazed by the power of nature and concerned about people in Japan I started to think what about that tragedy could have been prevented. Hardly anything, I guess. Earthquakes have been hitting that part of the planet since the beginning and tsunamis are so unpredictable in their intensity as any other natural power. Luckily, their knowledge and developed technology made the losses smaller then it could have been. Think about Haiti last January, or Indonesia, 2004.
But my thoughts did not stayed in Asia for a long time. As soon as I opened my browser today, to check up on the latest news, there was some other calamity that caught my eyes. Something is happening in the world’s 7th largest economy. Every year the country where I’m from and lived the first 20 years of my life, count their damage and dead after the summer rains. This time it could have been different, but it was not.
From November thru March, thousands of people from north to the south, have died and another hundreds of thousands have lost their houses. Sao Paulo, the 10th richest city in the world, is daily submersed (literally) and it’s suburbs, or truly - slums, have been washed away once again leaving behind mud, desperation and even more poverty. Again, this time it could have been different, but it was not.
For my whole life I heard a joke I used to think it was funny, it tells the story of world’s creation while in a talk with god, a couple of angels claim for fairness. How could the creator bless so much a place given to it an amazing weather, beautiful landscapes, all kinds of natural resources and no tornados, no volcanoes or earthquakes. So that god answer: “but you will see what kind of bastards I’m gonna put to live there”.
In days like today, it doesn’t make me laugh anymore, because a 9 grade earthquake, followed by a tsunami, killed as much in Japan as the habitual summer rains in Brazil, only in the past couple of months. It’s not funny because, as old jokes, the same scene repeated over and over again loses it’s meaning. It does not amuse (amaze) me because this time, and every other time, it could have been different, but it was not.
On the opposite sides of the world, Japan and Brazil are mirror images of each other. While one is prepared for the worst, the other still struggles to survive its daily tragedies. It’s time to change the picture, otherwise the next tsunami is gonna hit you very soon. And I just can keep hoping for change, as in Brazil, we all do.
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