In Tech, we ask “what’s the next big thing?” Cloud computing, virtualization, localization, verticalization (BTW, when you can take the online world with you, the distinction between off-and-on line seems to be blurred).
But we have been warned by Nature: tsunami, Haiti, Chile and Japan.
I am glad shaky videos by viewer-generated-content keep us informed (can’t help referencing back to the Indonesian tsunami). The Death of Distance is finally here. I am sure with the same technology (Twitter and Facebook), we can mobilize rescue and relief efforts faster than earlier disasters (already out are the Gaga wristbands etc…).
My heart sank for the victims of those devastated townships.
Being ready for disaster was one thing.
Getting hit by what had always kept you up at night was quite another.
All the automobiles once ready for shipping now floating about like toy cars (courtesy of Japan TV).
All for one, one for all – on Space-Ship-Earth.
I was doing my school project (TV production) on Energy Conservation
(when there were long lines at the gas stations). Then I interned at WNEP-TV in PA when the story broke at Three-Mile-Island nuclear power plant. We camped out there for days, with high anxiety and trepidation
(when you drove in to town, seeing people fleeing after emptying out the ATM’s, it’s not a good sight).
Now, the citizens of Japan are going through similar catastrophe (perhaps some survivors of WWII are still around to witness an encore ).
Let’s take this as a “teachable moment”. Where’s next?
There was a movie about “the things we lost in the fire”.
Maybe we should upload photos and documents up to the cloud for safekeeping.
Maybe we should smile at our neighbors, and hug our loved ones more often.
The Youngbloods had a line in “Get Together” “Come on people now, ….try to love one another right now.”.
It’s comforting to know no matter what language Nature tries to warn us next
(already French-Haiti, Japanese or Spanish-Chile ), we got each other.
America has been resilient through thick-and-thin. It will hold the torch one more time. Rise, baby, rise (to the occasion). Be that search light for the rescue.
We learned from Katrina of what not to do. Now is the time to go ahead and be that heroic “land of the free”. Doesn’t matter where next is. We got each other.
Thang Nguyen 555 