Should you look at a disaster?
Anesthesia Oboist tells us why we must watch the images of the Tsunami in Japan –
What turns my stomach is the image of a bunch of safe, comfortable Americans / British people / Europeans WHINING from their comfy homes about how “tough” it is to look at other’s pain and suffering. THEY WON’T EVEN LOOK, they REFUSE TO SEE the faces of their brothers and sisters suffering across the world – and thus, to my mind, in a way deny or refuse to affirm the reality of that suffering.
At the same time, she offers us a link to an amazing post that contrasts our Western disaster porn with the Japanese media, which has been a beacon of calm.
When news broke of the radiation leakage and the explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, I expected the televisions to be splashed with infographics of the potential fallout, showing kill zones and decay zones. But nothing happened. Instead, a Japanese official held up a diagram of the reactor’s coolant system, explained how it was failing, and what they were doing to allay the damage.
…Creating a national sense of fear and panic won’t make the tsunami stop, and won’t keep the nuclear plant from a meltdown. So these people have decided their role is to keep Japan moving, to keep the national spirit up, to wait for news rather than manufacture it themselves.
Do follow the links and read both eloquent posts arguing why we must look, but not look too much.
I have to admit that I’ve been a bit addicted to tsunami news – in fact, I was up past 1 am last night trolling the net for Tsunami videos. Call it morbid curiousity, but I just needed to see. To understand the enormity of what had happened. To wrap my head around this horrific reality. Shamefully I have to admit that before this, I really did not understand the power of the tsunami. I thought it just destroyed things near the beach, not miles inland.
But that video up there set me straight. And finally showed me everything I needed to see. So I’m posting it for those, like me, who want/need to look.
But now I’m going to turn off CNN, delete “Tsunami” from my search engine, send a check to Red Cross and get back to living. Because in the end, that’s really all I can do.
Peggy,
I can’t stop thinking of the earthquake, and keep checking the news. Maybe the difference between us relates to why some doctors choose obstetrics and others choose oncology. I think there’s a lot we (everyone) can learn about how life can destabilize so suddenly, and how people respond to that, beyond the medical and engineering aspects of the crisis.
Elaine –
Wow – An interesting comparison of ob and oncology – and you may be right about it.
I just read your thoughtful post on the disaster –
http://www.medicallessons.net/2011/03/live-blogging-a-book-and-the-earthquake
and I think there is much truth to what Sontag says, and you reiterate.
I suspect we each have a point where our receptors for disaster images and stories become saturated, and it is different for each of us. For me, it was after reading the two posts I describe that I realized that I was done watching, and just needed to write that check.
The people of Japan remain in my thoughts and prayers, but off my search engine.
Oboist is letting anger and rage show itself ; the tsunami has caused masses of suffering , but then again so do wars . This is the aftermath but without the bombs and shelling , etc .
I`m not being perverse , but I AM sitting here in my quiet study , typing this .
Thanks for the link! I enjoyed reading your centrist take on things, and I think your approach is probably the healthiest response for people not directly involved in the quake and aftermath.
I wish that more people back home could do the same; I think too many people are getting addicted to the danger. I really do think, though, that there is a difference between people who are here in Japan and people at home. People at home are calling those of us in Japan who are trying to move on (whether we’re in affected areas or not) all sorts of names, saying we don’t actually understand what’s going on. It’s getting kind of crazy.
Either way, thank you for the thoughtful look at both sides!
i read this late, but thank you. i’ve been glued to the news — we lived in japan some time ago, and our daughter studied in northern japan last school year.
the slant of much coverage has driven me wild — particularly the breathless pronouncements of total nuclear disaster, which overtook the widespread damage and loss from the tsunami and quake this past week. don’t get me wrong, it is a bad situation, but facts and perspective make a lot of difference.