Last year, Haiti experienced a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Due to the mostly impoverished state of their country and the economy, Haiti was not prepared for this great disaster. The quake destroyed homes, cities, and pretty much the country as a whole. The Haitian people, blindsided by the event, struggled to find refuge and relief from the terror they were faced with. An earthquake that rocked the lives of almost ten million people still haunts their lives a year later.
A few weeks ago, Japan experienced an 8.9 magnitude earthquake. This natural disaster destroyed homes, cities and utilities as well as caused a tsunami that performed further damage to the country. Although Japan has faced earthquakes before, none have been this extreme or have caused detrimental waves. Since then, the country went without vital utilities such as water and electricity for days, they have experienced death, and a nuclear crisis that is still in effect. The Japanese people are experiencing something that will haunt them for days, months and years to come.
Almost every day, Southern California experiences an earthquake. An earthquake so small a magnitude no one notices. The last major quake that affected San Diego was Easter of last year, 7.2 magnitudes. No homes were lost, no buildings collapsed, no countries in ruins.
We who live in here see the destruction across the sea on tv and read about it on the internet. We sit in our cozy houses on the beach or in the mountains, sipping our starbucks and think hey, that sucks, perhaps we should do something about it? So what do we do, we throw parties and perform benefit concerts to raise money for (insert charity here). We text “(insert country here) relief” to (insert numbers here) to donate a measly $10 to help out (insert other charity here) because it’s trendy. I help out now, helping is cool. The government gives thousands and millions of dollars for “relief” aka “make ‘them’ more like ‘us.’” Because we don’t have life altering, world shattering earthquakes that destroy countries in a matter of seconds, we have every day life.
