At first I decided to write about friendship, but then the idea seemed to carry less significance when I thought about the professor’s hint; “Why is it so important to talk about it now?” So, when I was browsing through the keyword in my mind, suddenly I remember the calls from my mom. She talks about the earthquakes that have been happening throughout the year in Indonesia. And the keyword “disaster” suddenly pops into my mind. The word “disaster” always has a bad connotation when I think about it. According to the OED, “disaster” is “Anything that happens without foresight or expectation; an unusual event, which proceeds from some unknown cause, or is an unusual effect of a known cause.” It implies that all things that relates to danger and is accompanied by casualties. According to Wikipedia, the root of the word “disaster” implies that when the positions of the stars are bad, then bad things will happen. Over the centuries, the meaning of “disaster” has changed. The past, most people think that “disaster” is associated with unnatural occurrence with the nature such as earthquake, landslide or volcanic eruption. But as of today, people tend to think that disasters mostly come from technological aspects. The outcome of disasters driven from technology has gone haywire. Imagine the long term effects of nuclear bomb that can still cause death from the radiation for many years. And also the psychological attack from 9/11 that is keeping us in constant fear from the same incident that might occur again in the future. Moreover, the movie “Terminator” has similar effects about apocalyptic disasters when it comes to technology. In this movie, the machine is portrayed as a “disaster” when they were planning to take over humans. So “disaster” has evolved into a broader context; human disasters.
What else that makes “disaster” interesting to talk about? Even though a lot of people are skeptical about the good outcome from “disaster,” I don’t think they are going to deny that there is at least one good thing from “disaster.” Take a look at the Asian-Tsunami incident in 2004. That incident took the lives of millions of people including the aftershocks. After the incident, many countries, especially in Asia had already taken many precautions concerning natural disasters. Also many people have participated in helping the victims through various charitable donations. From these two examples, we can observe that “disaster” throughout history has changed the way we act, and makes us cautious and careful to what might happen in the future.
So, why does “disaster” is so important to talk about in these days? Well, since the Tsunami incident, there have been lots and lots of natural disasters occurring in the Asian countries, especially in Indonesia, Japan, and China. Furthermore, bombing threats from terrorist keep coming. I think “disaster” is a constant check to us all human because it keeps reminding us that there are some forces in this world that even the most powerful human can’t control. We need to know that our lives are at stake here. The least we can do is to not to be ignorant in today’s disasters and put some effort to make this world be a better place. But here’s a counter argument: if the world is coming to an end, why bother to care for this world?
3 comments:
That's too bad you changed your initial thoughts. I felt that "friendship" was a REALLY good word. Especially in the sense of today's world where most everything is digitized and people are meeting/creating friendship through the internet or any other technological media. I was going to write on the word "Interactive" which would also hold a strong relationship to friendship. But not to dwell on that, disaster is also a good word, since so many has happened in recent years. I like your allusion to Terminator. Disasters are almost like nature's way of cleaning or sending the message of cleaning. After the Tsunamis in Asia those cities have since then rebuilt their infrastructure to maybe a better standard than they were before. And I'm unsure of the good outcome from disaster?
After reading your post I was thinking of some good outcomes from disasters. In a sense, natural disasters such as earthquakes and fires bring people together to help restore what was lost. The American Red Cross, volunteers, and the general public always help out by either donating their money or time. Disasters also make people realize how important life is. From a biological sense, even though wildfires destroy lives, they are also important because they are part of the plant life cycle. Fires help plants disperse seeds and decreases their competition.
It is always interesting what we term 'natural' disaster and what we don't. This is usually a political and economic matter. If we just considered all disasters 'natural' (even 9/11) it seems like we would relate to disasters differently, and respond with more care and less anger.
I think this was a great word to choose, and it is very topical right now because we are in the midst of deciding how to think about (or rethink our relation to) the planet. Is the human species a slow form of natural disaster for this planet? Or will humans be able to assuage certain 'natural disasters' even though they might have helped bring them about? Can humans tap into the energy of certain 'natural disasters' and harness it for 'green' uses? Polly is right: maybe global warming will produce catastrophic disasters that will yet pull people together in unprecedented ways.
There are so many questions around this term. I'm glad that you switched your keyword to disaster; if only we would have been able to talk about this in class a little!
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