Besides all the news about the bus bombing in Jerusalem today and the war games in Libya – Japan still maintains a role in the news on TV. And listening to the news about more and more radioactivity in food, in water, in the air and the evacuation of all workers of Fukushima Nuclear Plant I ask myself whether we really grasp the reality we are facing. Looking at the pictures of destroyed cities – empty shops, no electricity, no petrol: a whole system, praised as one of the most efficient and technology wise advanced nations has come to a still stand and the radioactivity in the nature and the sea will not go away soon. Most probably at least one generation will be constantly reminded of the disaster.
It is the second time, Japan is hit from the nuclear power – the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still vivid memories for the Japanese people.
I read from Bishop Williamson, that he connects the disaster with the sins of the people and that God uses such punishment to bring people to re-think their doing. What a nonsense – what an abuse of a catastrophe for a meaningless theology – abandoned in that form a long time ago. God protect us from those Pius-brothers, they are really a pain in the neck of our church trying to recover from all the bad news of the last years.
It seems that most people have lost the ability to comprehend what is going on – the consequences of natural forces and that within minutes, our ordinary life is gone – as the people of a nation, a community or also in a private capacity. It reminds me that also other disasters like HIV/AIDS seems to be so incomprehensible that one stops thinking really of it, because it is “the others”, not me, not us. It is far away – it cannot happen to me, to us, to our family. Or the question of the millions dying of hunger every year, while we throw away food and subsidies destroying food in the rich countries or for farm products never been sold.
For me, the Japanese tragedy reminds me, how short-sighted we are and how we push away all thoughts, which would mean troubling thoughts on a long term run. Which would push me to give answers on questions I don’t want to be bothered with… Which maybe ask me to acknowledge that this world is still “in creation” as the bible put it – not ready, not in harmony – and even not giving an answer to the question “why””.
Be the work in the fields of HIV/AIDS or be it the tragedy in Japan – I hope I led all these questions to bother me as long as I live and challenge me to search for new answers every day.
Filed under: General, HIV and AIDS, Reflection, Uncategorized, hiv, hunger, Japan, meaning in life, nature, radioactivity
God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE 