Just came back from a work trip to China. A lot happened during the trip. But this entry will not be on all that. This entry will be on the huge earthquake that happened in May this year in China, particularly bad in Beichuan in Szechuan province.
I remember that day. I was on duty for assembly that week and I remember asking students to observe a moment’s silence for the lives lost. Terrible images during in the media. We were all moved from afar. We did what we could by donating money. After a while, time passed and we moved on.
Well on this trip to China, one of our stops was a city in Szechuan. The city was profoundly affected by the earthquake. The surrounding areas saw huge loss of lives. In fact, the night before we were scheduled t fly into the area, I had smses from Singapore telling me that we have to be careful as there were after shocks in the area. So there was a slight trepidation we felt going into the area.
But it was weird. It was as if nothing happened. We were driven into the city. Life went on. Cars were zipping around. People went about their business. If we didn’t know, we wouldn’t have known that it was hit by earthquakes. Well, as we stayed longer, it became more apparent. There was a lot of rebuilding going on. A lot of the buildings were damaged and their were patching up parts of buildings. It was slightly unreal. But still, it didn’t seem that significant or real.
Then we spoke to the people. Many were profoundly affected by it. Many lost family members and friends. There were a lot of stories of personal heroism and human kindness that moved us. I remember a class discussion I had a few weeks ago about the infamous teacher who ran off before his students and was proud of it. The people there were largely appalled by his behaviour. Many did not do that and sought to help their fellow human beings even at great personal risk. It made me feel proud to be part of the human race. Human goodness does show itself in adversity. One school principal shared that he would rather be killed in the quake rather than let even one of his students perish while he lived on. Thankfully, his school did not lose a single student. People got ut, but no one lost their lives. I was moved.
Many of them also expressed their appreciation for the kindness from abroad. They appreciated the well wishes and aid we sent. It made them feel less alone in their time of need.
It got even weirder when our hosts took us to Beichuan where the worst of the earthquake happened. It ook abou an hour to drive there. It was a strange drive. We went in ordinary cars but the roads were bad. They were badly damaged by the earthquake or the resulting falling rocks. It was a very bumpy ride. All along the way, we also saw rows and rows of tents put up to house the homeless from the quake. It really made us feel the reality of the tragedy. So many lives disrupted.
Also, all along the way, there was evidence of houses destroyed, buildings collapsed. It was really a terrible scene. Then there were road blocks set up by the army. I didn’t think we would get through. But we did. Finally we stopped. The cars couldn’t go any further. We had to walk the rest of the way. We were initially reluctant to get out of the cars. It looked like a war scene. Lots of trucks, army personnel and debris everywhere. More importantly, there was deep mud everywhere. We weren’t prepared. We were in work clothes and certainly did not have the right shoes to trudge through the mud.
But we got out and trudged through the mud. I was cursing under my breath that we weren’t warned of the conditions. But we got to the site of a school that collapsed, killing hundreds of its students. In fact, many press photos carried images of this school. It was real and right in front of us. Death was everywhere around us. We all fell silent. It seemed inappropriate to say anything. What was there to say? But more was to await is. We climbed up a small hill and overlooking the valley below, we saw an entire village crushed by the mountain that moved forward with the earthquake. Thousands of lives were lost there. Very few people survived. Apparently, some of the dead bodies could not be pulled out and were still there. The weird part was that I am sure the village was very beautiful and scenic. The valley was actually beautiful. But nature can be cruel. Now it was just carnage and death.
I included two photos I took there. It does not do justice. But just two snap shots. Puts everything in perspective.
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- School that collapsed
seeing you and your staunch stand towards cyber welfare now this is an alert, that the latest flamed blog in ny is
dileen.livejournal.com
she’s been getting ninety odd comments, do something about it if you want to. protect, scold, take action? she’s flamed for the epic failure of connect singapore btw.
Exactly. Why is it that Hernhern’s blog doesn’t get flamed when people more often than not link her to the project because she seems to be the one making all the announcements? art-istry.livejournal.com
It’s a learning experience for these people, Hernhern Dileen and the exco of this event.
the flamers on connect singapre blog flamed dileen more than hernhern cos dileen’s young and rising, i think they wanted her to die more than hernhern who’s sortof retiring.
and dileen has probably a much greater involvement in connect singapore and could blog with much more fervency about it no? she seems to have a much stronger sense of ownership of the project
i agree with you fellow newyorker. Isn’t it unfair that she’s getting the flaming. But that’ll be good training for the young and rising.
people will move on.
Thanks for the heads up on this. Will look into it.
I have looked at the comments made and some have really been unkind. While I agree that we can all learn from things like this, what I wish is that people would be less personal and more objective. It is not a question of who is to blame. It is a question of how to make things better.
Two issues here for me. One is effectiveness. To get people to listen, don’t get personal or people get defensive. Then no one wins and we resort to name calling. Secondly and more importantly, young people can be very cruel. I am really disappointed. So much for idealism. I am happy to see passion and involvement. But it must be mitigated by I know the now almost ironic phrase “common human decency”. Sigh.
Mr.L, kudos to you for being genuinely concerned.
Keep faith in new york, there’s a lot of people there who’ll need you.
Hiya. There is not a lot I can do actually that will make a meaningful difference. But there is a lot we can do together. ny is a place we all live and work in. We want to make it the best place possible for all. I have the highest regard for all of you. You are bright, passionate and full of life. But let’s try to be kinder to one another. Constructive criticism is not a bad thing if we remember to value each other as human beings first.
Hm this is really out of place but it’s just a random thought that spurred out of ireflection’s “We want to make it the best place possible for all. I have the highest regard for all of you.” comment.
I can highly imagine how the management would have rejected a proposal for the entire population to be involved, if not for the organisers being part of the highly valued leadership level of the community, and of course (but to a lesser extent), that this is a project involving ten thousands of people from other places as well.
Well writing as a mediocre girl who’s hardly noticed in this vast place filled with talents, I think it’s rather unfair that much emphasis is put on the ‘high and elite” (rather far-fetched from this case I agree, but…) amongst all of us, especially in the case of studies. (Well of course it can be argued that I don’t work hard enough, but that’s another story. -.-) It’s like, no wonder many of us don’t find a place in the school other than being attached to our CCAs.
I guess I don’t really make sense and I hesitate to post this as I type. But hopefully, someone’ll make some sense out of what I wrote.
Please, Mr L., don’t come and haunt me down ahaha.
Hi lw,
Agreed that success in tests need not equate good leadership skills. All of you are talents. That’s our starting point. Always will be for me. We are consciously trying to spread things around.
CCA is but one avenue. You are right. It is hard to get noticed “in this vast place filled with talents”. This is early preparation for the big leagues. Will get even tougher as you move on.
But we try. Would love to hear good ideas to make it better. There is a context to most things. We do try to support well intended initiatives from students. You don’t need to wear a badge.
Mr L, who does “we” refer to? Do you speak for an entire group then?
Success in tests hardly equates to anything. Besides mugging.
LW- I believe you are getting at elitism in our school. Elitism for those with badges and those who pass tests. Much emphasis is put on them as such.
But here I ask you- If they don’t place emphasis on the ones who stand out, who can they place emphasis on? A random, insignificant NewYorker? Now why would they do that? Resources/attention is limited.
I’ve got news for you- in many CCAs, emphasis is still only placed on the elite. It’s because they stand out and they want them to go even higher. If that emphasis is placed on an average person, who, in NewYork, is then going to excel? Who’s going to raise the bar?
I am not part of the elite. I am also an unnoticed mediocre girl. But I don’t have problems with elitism. No one said life must be ‘fair’. If you’ve got problems with elitism in our school, you should look at our government.
I did a study on the GEProgramme before. What the government gives them would make our most privileged (nonGEP) councillor/top scorer look grossly deprived.
While i’m still deep in thought, but distracted by the pile of homework i have to complete, as a Councillor, a GEP-er, I’ll admit that i’m very privileged.
I’m privileged since P4 when i get a lot of the Government’s resources under the GEP.
I’m privileged as a Councillor because i get to learn and go through many things that people may not have gone through, as one of the top positions i get to go for overseas programmes, heavily subsidized.
But as a GEP-er we face extra pressure to do well, and of course, discrimination heh, though i must say that i’m lucky not to have been er, discriminated too often.
As a Councillor i’m forced into difficult situations and am forced to mature and grow within a very short time and see things from different perspectives. I’m still growing, still learning.
Can’t really process my thoughts, but I must say that yes, i’m very lucky, yes i’m very privileged, and i try to make myself worthy of these privileges by working as hard as i can.
Just to add on, if i’m not wrong, the school agreed to the project before we joined in the organization team.
And, I appreciate your comment, even though I disagree with quite a number of points, it serves as a reminder of different perspectives that still exists- maybe i’ve grown complacent over the years after not receiving offensive comments abt me being in the GEP and what not.
I’ll continue reflecting and then rejustify/change my P O V
And that is why, HH, I respect you. We can only wish that all the privileged are like you. But no. You should know.
You are a very good example of a resilient and mature leader. You have used your privileges well.
But not everybody does.
And that, my friend, is resource wasted.
The project has a long and complicated history. But too much has been spilled on that already. I don’t profess to speak for anyone besides myself, and I know not everyone shares my views. But there are some of us (including many of you) who share the vision of making where we are the best place for all of us. That’s why I use the collective at times.
Interesting to hear from two perspectives. Resource allocation is an issue and while we all try to be as egalitarian as possible, we know this is not possible in an absolute sense. We need to make choices. But ultimately, all of you have a lot of privileges and will continue to have them. And I am happy to say that most of you have used them very well. That is actually the basis for my highest regard for you all.
hey! update your blog! I wanna read more!
So demanding! Why do you want to read about?