Current Events

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We've heard about wars and riots and protests all around the world. Sure, man-made disasters. But so far this far 2 weeks there have been two NATURAL disasters in our continent of Asia. A cyclone in Myanmar and an earthquake in China. This topic has been very popular in our school too. Even here in Hsin-chu, people claimed that they too felt the tremors of the quake, which epicenter of located in the middle of China.
I believe that the real bad thing about natural disasters is the aftermath. The destroyed homes, the death tolls rising each day after new findings.
In China, many believe that their death tool from their 7.8 quake may hit 50,000 people. There have been stories of the sorrow in China. *Of "two grandparents carrying their dead grandson because they didn't want to put him down on the ground and destroyed areas". **Another story of how a "live baby was found under his dead mother and father because they had protected him with their lives". About 3.5 million homes were destroyed form this terrible earthquake. It is told that this is the largest most damaged earthquake in the last generation and that last largest earthquake was also in China in 1976.
While in Myanmar, the death toll could hit 100,000 people. And theif government still isn't letting any aid get in without their control over it first. They only allowed the helicopters from the US to hover over the land and drop the aid boxes so the Myanmar government can be the one who controls everything and delivers the aid to the people in need.

Its amazing what nature can do and how many lives it can take in just a few minutes or hours.

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* , ** = <http://his-jordanw.blogspot.com/2008/05/chinas-quake.html>

Picture 1 =
<http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/15/quake.thursday/index.html?iref=mpstoryview>

Picture 2 = <http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/15/myanmar/index.html?iref=mpstoryview>