dismal thoughts about current news cycle.

Tyler Hicks in NYTimes, from 'Scenes from Libya'. 6 March 2011. My comment: A jarring confluence of familiarity and remoteness.

Being ill, I spent the weekend sequestered at home, no international growth groups, no Sunday School, no St. Helen’s. Instead, I’ve been almost obsessively following news coming out of Japan. The earthquake and tsunami struck on Friday morning. I woke up just after they struck. At the time, it was fascinating to watch live footage of the tsunami and quake. At the time also, very few people were estimated to have died. Even later that afternoon, hours later, the death toll had been raised to ‘only’ 200 or so. I was impressed by Japan’s preparation, the durability and solid construction of its buildings, and the calmness of the Japanese people. When I left home in the morning, there was yet no mention of Daiichi or Daiini nuclear power plants.

Prior to this, I had been following news of Libya. The New York Times had continuous photo updates; I had been especially struck by pictures of young men and boys in jeans and t-shirts, button-downs, or polos sitting on tanks or holding guns and celebrating rebel victory in Benghazi. At the moment, I had been so struck by the normalcy and relatibility of those pictures–they looked like anyone I’d see walking down the street, except for the guns.

This weekend has been both encouraging, and disheartening. So relieved that Makiko, my Japanese friend from Paris is safe in Tokyo with her family, and three days later learned that all Hatsumoris are fine.  Thank God for their safety!! We were worried about them, because their home is in Sendai…Also was relieved to know for certain that Tiff was still in Taipei. Thankfully Tokyo is ok– Japanese buildings codes are incredible.

Spent the weekend listening to YokosoNews, a live English-language broadcast from Japan, where Katz-san and Ema translate Japanese news for listeners, while also answering questions sent via Facebook and Twitter. Appreciate very much the level-headed, calm perspective. Also followed Kyodo News, NHK and NYTimes (which has some fantastic, helpful graphics). Basically news from Japan has deteriorated quickly. First NYTimes pictures showed the extent of damage of coastal towns–everything decimated. The numbers are incomprehensible, predictions of 10,000 deaths out of 17,000 residents in one town.. Initially it seemed that life would resume quickly and normally in Tokyo; then the nuclear reactors started to explode, to overheat, the pumps failed, containment vessel breached, suppression pool contaminated, radiation released, readings went up then down…basically complete uncertainty. 1/3 of Japan’s power source disabled; planned power cuts in the northeast- transportation disrupted due to the power cuts, food shortages resulting from people stocking up on supplies. To top it all off, another large earthquake may happen in the same area, while Shizuoka area around Mount Fuji was hit by a magnitude 6.4 quake, and temperatures around the north will drop in the coming days, with snow possible; there are over 400,000 people out of their homes.

I think about the workers who are scrambling to keep the nuclear reactors from total meltdown, at huge, huge risk to their own health. Already 3 workers suffer from radiation sickness, and 11 were injured in one of the hydrogen explosions. Of the 800 working to maintain the water pumps, all but 50 were evacuated when radiation levels spiked; journalists asked about the 50 during a TEPCO press conference, but the question was left unanswered.

And in Libya, the opposition were pushed back and back and back. Last I saw, they will soon be pushed back to Benghazi, the centre of opposition control in the east. I don’t know, the stickiness of the political situation suggests to me that sans external support, Benghazi will fall. And it will be so, so brutal. People are going to be arrested, disappeared, executed…I think about those NYTimes pictures–how easy it will be for those people to be named, identified, and arrested. Needless to say, the thought of that is stomach-churnning. As an aside, in Bahrain the Saudis entered the country to put down protesters. Someone tweeted:

@NickKristof It’s a curse being a Shia from #Bahrain or #Saudi. Hated by Arabs for being Shia, Iranis for being Arab, and the West for both.

In short, news is so bleak, the world is so broken.