Remembering When Tragedy Strikes

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Today marks the 2 year anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake that struck the Sichuan province on May 12, 2008. It measured at 7.9 and killed over 69,000 people.

Today marks the 4 week anniversary of the Southern Qinghai earthquake that hit on April 13, 2010. It measured at 6.9, killed over 2,000 people and left over 120,000 homeless. This is one of the "Most Remote Areas of China"

Today marks the 5th school attach in China in the past 2 months. This attack was located in the Shaanxi province and happened at a kindergarten. 5 boys, 2 girls and a female school teacher were hacked to death with a kitchen cleaver by the 48 year old man who later went home and committed suicide. Eleven other children and a teacher were hospitalized.

Last week we had a 3 day weekend turned into a 5 day weekend as some speculate due to the recent attacks on schools. In our own city of Shenzhen, in the Luohu district, there was a threat last week at a primary school that a man was going to kill 100 students. Thankfully nothing occurred but this is a troubling matter as we are approaching the end of our contracts here in China.

This week I read the Shenzhen Daily newspaper that is printed in English at Starbucks and realized why I stopped watching the local news in the USA. As there is nothing but sad stories of how many people committed suicide this weekend or killed their family members. This society is going through lots of change and not all the citizens are in support of it nor how to deal with the change.

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