Earlier this week, Venezuela had not one but two major earthquakes. These were the biggest earthquakes which Venezuela has experienced in well over a century, from what I heard.
Predictably, the death toll is rising, and quickly. That is not surprising, after the video images of buildings collapsing and people fleeing on foot. Also, there was video of cities in smoke and buildings having collapsed.
Other countries are responding and sending emergency crews. That includes the United States, according to Marco Rubio.
There is not much for me to add regarding this story. After all, I do not know all of the facts and, like almost everyone else, I have seen this from afar, watching in horror as new video clips and statistics keep rolling in. I have never even been to Venezuela, or even South America yet.
However, one silver lining is that people are helping, as mentioned earlier.
Something like this kind of makes you stop and recognize how fortunate most of us really are. These kinds of disasters seem to happen everywhere, all around the world. I remember similar earthquakes wreaking havoc in places like Turkey, Mexico, and Haiti in the past. Then there was the massive earthquake which caused the tsunami in Japan. And let's not even get into the disastrous tsunami of 2004, which killed something like 150,000 people.
This gives us perspective on what real problems in this world look like, and that nobody is immune. You just never know when things like this will happen. But it is encouraging to see that the world is not so dead inside that we do not sympathize or try to help.
Admittedly, I am not much of a religious person. Perhaps I was never blessed with faith, as some other people have been. So while I cannot express thoughts and prayers, my heart does go out to the victims of the Venezuelan earthquakes and wish the survivors all of the best wishes.
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