Owenskies Blog

China – On the Road to Recovery

The 7.9 magnitude of earthquake that shook China on May 12 shocked the entire world. The death toll started at about 9,000. And now, it is reported that more than 51,000 are confirmed dead and the number of injured is now at 274,683.

For us, those may just be numbers. But for the people who are affected by the tragedy, those numbers will forever be etched on their memories.

The center of the quake was at the Sichuan Province where among the confirmed deaths, 40,854 were found on this area. And the counting process never seems to end. The death tolls are expected to rise as the rescue operations are still ongoing. As of today, about 14,000 people are buried in all eight affected provinces.

If you are already wincing at the numbers, just imagine how many people are left homeless. How many of them would no longer be able to see their loved ones? How many of them could no longer get back to the lives they used to lead?

This earthquake is said to be the deadliest one that hit China since 1976 where over 240,000 people were killed on the Tangshan earthquake.

And not only humans were affected by this disaster. China is home to 130 wild pandas. The Wolong Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda is located at the epicenter of the quake. As of today, it is reported that two giant pandas are still missing.

After the tragedy, what’s good with China is that their people as well as the government are showing superb efforts to save and rebuild lives and broken dreams. People couldn’t help but compare this to the cyclone disaster that hit Myanmar earlier in the month.

Myanmar and the entire world actually should learn something from this. In times of disasters, you no longer need to pause and think about things. It doesn’t matter if we are being ruled by militaries, a woman president or a black leader. Nothing matters but the rate that you will go in order to save lives and help them get back on track.

Calamities are real. These should not only be good subjects for custom printing purposes. The Sichuan quake and the Myanmar cyclone remind people that life is too short. There are other more important things in this world than people’s claim to power and greed.