Japanistan

"Afghan officials say a suicide bomber has killed more than 33 people at an Afghan army recruiting center." This was what was scrolling beneath some of the pictures of the devastation that is now Japan while I was watching CNN on Sunday.

I watched the pictures stream by of the people in Japan wandering dazed, looking for loved ones or any trace of the life they once had and thought of how much they were suffering through no fault of their own- and then thought of all of the war torn parts of the world that keep on fighting, destroying and killing by choice and it just seemed ludicrous. It's comparable to one person barely holding onto life and a healthy person committing suicide. One person throwing away food while another one starves- it just doesn't make sense.

I started writing this a few days ago and I didn't quite know where to go with it so I put it off. Today I was trying again to find a direction other than the obvious being irony, so I looked up out of curiosity how many countries on this planet are at war in one way or another and now I am even more baffled.

We hear a lot about Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and the other high profile war zones, but smaller ones, like The Ivory Coast sort of get swallowed up and forgotten, at least by part time payers of attention like me. However according to Wikipedia, in this century alone, 6 major wars have been started and 11 other conflicts. (major wars are those resulting in 10,000 + deaths per year and other conflicts are less than 10,000 deaths per year)

So I sit here still scratching my head wondering where my point is, and all I can think is, I'm pretty sure that the countries that have been bombarded with natural disasters in recent years, had so many lives lost and the land left in utter chaos, would have preferred not to have had such suffering. Then I am forced to wonder why the countries that bring it upon themselves to kill and leave their land in chaos can't realize how lucky they really are to not be burdened with nature being so destructive and subsequently figure out a way to end their conflict.

I guess what it really boils down to is I am just too simple minded to understand these things, and maybe I am better off staying that way.