The Earth Quake that Unites China

Most of the readers of my blog may think Cuppa is a nerd who lives only in the techie world.

Not quite. I have been keeping myself abreast with the world news, and what gets most of my attention is the earth quake that shook Sichuan Province in China on May 12.

I have seen a lot of pictures online, and here I post some of those that struck me.

Worrying the next earth quake may bury her and no one knows her name. This girl wrote her name, Song Yao (宋瑶), on her left hand. "The rescue worker will have no difficulty identifying me even if I were buried deep down there." I wonder how long it will take to heal the psychological shock to these survivors.

This man lost his nine-year-old son, holding the body, he could only cry... I kind of experienced that before when my cat was run over by a truck. While holding its body which cooled little by little, my brain was blank and just hoped everything was a dream. Holding it I walked around my house like this sad father, until my parents took it away from my hands. The only regret was they made a wrong decision to dispose it in a dumpster instead of burying it at the backyard. For the next cat, we took care of it from cradle to grave, all in the same house. It even has its own custom-made coffin and buried under a tree where it liked to sit under. I have planted some purple flowers on the grave as well, heh. :)

This teacher tried to protect her pupils while the whole concrete slab crushing on them. Although none of them survived in this case, there were reports where teachers managed to save the children but sacrificing themselves. I salute these people.

A demised student found still holding to her pen until the last moment...

This earth quake is a tragedy, however it does have some positive effects. First of all, it has a unification effect where the whole China and Chinese from all over the world put aside the political and ideological differences and chip in to help. Attention on Tibet is alleviated, Taiwan not talking much on independence or joining WHO, and the leaders of China are shown with more positive lights.

Life is fragile, just one minute of earth quake changed lives of million of people. A blogger in China secrets admires his classmate for a long long time. However after years he still doesn't have the courage to tell her. She died in the 512 quake, and he regrets big time. In his blog, he keeps asking himself why he didn't have the guts to tell her earlier.

Similar stories abound: wife plans to go travel with husband but was too busy, keep postponing the plan; children plan to bring old parents for a trip, again too busy and keep postponing. All now grieve with life-long regrets.

Realizing the uncertainty of life long long time ago, Cuppa has contingency plan long long time ago.

First, long long time ago he already told the girl he loves her in an ultra repetitive and boring way, to the extent she wanted to sue him. Anyway, that message is believed already been driven home. It is her turn to regret should anything happens to Cuppa. Heh. :P

Next Cuppa will travel with his parents to Europe in early June, hoping to fulfill one of the his ToDo list items.

Among the list of items..., to settle my parents in my place of birth, to have a family, and later, to work as a volunteer in Africa...?

We shall see. Treasure those around you. You never know what will happen in the next day, or even next hour....

Something more cheerful to end this post with:

This lucky girl smiles at the camera when the rescue workers found her underneath a pile of concrete walls. Smile of the year, yeah! :D