I heard from an old friend today from China whose family lives in Sichuan province, where the recent earthquake hit. One of her Uncles (I am not sure if this is a real Uncle as the Chinese commonly refer to male friends of the family as uncle) two sons were both killed in earthquake and only one of the bodies has been recovered.

Things like this should not happen on such a tragic scale anywhere in the world, but it will continue to occur in China as they march at alarming rates toward industrialization. Here's why: The Chinese are going through their own modern day renessiance. building at alarming rates with no attention to structural intregrety or safety--all of these things will come later in the modernization of China, when the stuff that they built to get through the building process collapses and they realize that building need to be made safer.

This is the thing that saddens me so much about the Chinese system of government. Throughout China, a quake of that size would cause the same amount of problems throughout the country because everything is designed in the same manner, quickly. The government has spent billions on the upcoming Olympic games, in order to show the world that China has come into the new age of technology. This instance of a natural tragedy shows that while the major cities like Beijing and Shanghai might be modern, but the majority of the country lives in constant danger and poverty.

I think that we also have blood on our hands. What is still happening with Hurricane Katrina here in the Gulf region is just sickening, but we are faced with the same problems that China is. Here we are, the richest country in the world (and the most in debt) and our advanced systems of government, which allow for corporate oil tycoon failures to be president, this government can not come together and make good decisions about the people of New Orleans and its surrounding areas. New Orleans is now the most dangerous part of the country, surpassing Detroit.

This is what makes tragic events like this so sad: Our governments, no matter what focus they claim to have, either as a democracy or a communist society, our governments continue to painfully ignore the really pressing issues of our times. I am so sorry for my former students loss. We as a society have got to begin to change the way that capitalism is in the drivers seat of our lives.