i got angry at hong kong's major english speaking newspaper, the south china morning post with their photo coverage of the ch ! nese earthquake victims. the front page photos were so graphic, and when you have children with inquisitive minds and active imaginations, this isn't good.

sebastian saw the photos and was disturbed by them.

obviously, there was a classroom full of kids who had the same issues, because sebastian's teacher spoke with the kids about the earthquake. apparently all the kids were concerned about the children who had died, and as hong kong is part of ch ! na...will an earthquake hit hong kong? miss c did the sensible thing. she gave the kids information. she pulled out a map and talked to them about fault lines. showed parts of china that are along fault lines and then showed that hong kong is NOT along the fault lines.

she mentioned that kids who live along fault lines know what to do in case of an earthquake so that they are kept safe. "hide under a table!" sebastian informed us. it was amazing how increasingly secure he felt with each piece of knowledge.

it completely surpassed his knowledge that the thousands of children who perished in the ch ! na earthquake were probably hiding under tables, doorframes and desks when their poorly constructed schools crumbled down upon them. it wasn't the earthquake that killed the people, apparently it was the badly built buildings that killed so many of the children and factory workers.

worth mentioning: it's nice that the government buildings in be!jing are so expensive and the olympic "water cube" cost $90usmillion of ch. ! na's own money (and an extra $110million us in donations) to build. the "bird's nest" stadium cost approximately $500(us) million to build.

was all that Olymp ! c excess necessary?

if the Be! j!ing government had not have been so excessive with their Olymp!c plans, then  possibly, maybe, we;ll never know, but the earthquake death toll might not have been so excessively heartbreaking?

$90 million would have gone a long way toward making schools with strong structures.

Comments

[Dad aka GDad Blake]

It is at times like this I repeat what Max Ehrmann wrote in Disiderata:
" With all its sham,drudgery and broken dreams it is still a beautiful world"
Love to all.....Dad

[knobody]

when s heard about the earthquake, the first thing he asked was if sebastian was okay.

[Louise M]

You don't want to know what is being spent on the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.... Sure could have built alot of housing for the growing homeless population in Vancouver, or opened up some hospital wards with the billions being spent. (things like the Sea to Sky highway upgrade aren't being "charged" to the Olympics, but are only being done because Whistler is part of the winter venue, same thing with the Vancouver Convention centre, now $5oo million over budget and growing, makes the fast ferry fiasco look like a drop in the bucket) Glad Sebastion hasn't made the intellectual leap to where the children were when the earthquake struck and that Hong Kong isn't on a fault line...