So, another earthquake yesterday afternoon--6.9 this time. At this rate, I'll be lucky if the airport is still standing by Wednesday. The good news is that there were no deaths, although there is some building damage.
I have to say, being in an earthquake is an awesome thing, in the sense that it inspires awe. It makes me feel so small, to have this huge, powerful force making a joke out of our little human endeavors. I also realized during this last quake why one reason why it is so disconcerting: my normal frame of reference is messed up. When I'm in a car, I can verify that I'm moving by looking out the window and watching the scenery change. In an earthquake, I feel like I'm shaking, but there's nothing that I can look at that ISN'T shaking.
Last night I met Lesbia at the bus stop and we went to a cafe and sat for about an hour to talk. I decided not to go to Granada this weekend because a) I'm sick and I don't want to travel, and b) I need to get this database finished, and some unexpected bugs have come up. So we sat and talked about lots of things. I posed to Lesbia the question that Allen Downey talked about in his article: "imagine that you are about to be born, but you don't know yet where you will be born or who your parents will be. How would you want the world to be?" I brought this up because we had been talking about globalization, free trade, and CAFTA. It's so overwhelming to think about the massive inequality in the world, we ended up sighing and saying things like "it won't change until everyone's hearts change," which might be true, but it's still discouraging. I want someone to tell me something concrete to do that is guaranteed to make the world a better place. I try to do that by only buying fair trade clothing, but what does that really accomplish? I'm not sending money to the sweatshop owners, but I'm probably not really changing their business practices, either. Maybe if everyone refused to buy clothing made in sweatshops, things would change, but it would be a painful transition, in which thousands (millions? I don't know) of people who were miserable working at hard, low-paying jobs would be miserable having no work at all. It's too overwhelming to think about.
I have to say, being in an earthquake is an awesome thing, in the sense that it inspires awe. It makes me feel so small, to have this huge, powerful force making a joke out of our little human endeavors. I also realized during this last quake why one reason why it is so disconcerting: my normal frame of reference is messed up. When I'm in a car, I can verify that I'm moving by looking out the window and watching the scenery change. In an earthquake, I feel like I'm shaking, but there's nothing that I can look at that ISN'T shaking.
Last night I met Lesbia at the bus stop and we went to a cafe and sat for about an hour to talk. I decided not to go to Granada this weekend because a) I'm sick and I don't want to travel, and b) I need to get this database finished, and some unexpected bugs have come up. So we sat and talked about lots of things. I posed to Lesbia the question that Allen Downey talked about in his article: "imagine that you are about to be born, but you don't know yet where you will be born or who your parents will be. How would you want the world to be?" I brought this up because we had been talking about globalization, free trade, and CAFTA. It's so overwhelming to think about the massive inequality in the world, we ended up sighing and saying things like "it won't change until everyone's hearts change," which might be true, but it's still discouraging. I want someone to tell me something concrete to do that is guaranteed to make the world a better place. I try to do that by only buying fair trade clothing, but what does that really accomplish? I'm not sending money to the sweatshop owners, but I'm probably not really changing their business practices, either. Maybe if everyone refused to buy clothing made in sweatshops, things would change, but it would be a painful transition, in which thousands (millions? I don't know) of people who were miserable working at hard, low-paying jobs would be miserable having no work at all. It's too overwhelming to think about.
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