Cristal Kim 09/10/14

We have all grown used to the term "natural disaster" but Junot Diaz argues that it is actually a social disaster brought upon humanity's own ignorance. In our own selfish greed, we have sought to destroy nature and all it's defenses in search of monetary ventures; he exemplifies the Haiti earthquake to draw attention to the lack of stable government and the foreign developers that have clearly taken advantage of the weakened state. Yet, despite all the evidence provided, our world still turns a blind eye to the harsh truth. Haiti has not totally recovered from their tragedy and is still working towards rebuilding their nation but the world seems to have forgotten the event altogether. If we continue to work selfishly, without concern for our fallen brothers, we similarly doom ourselves if and when the apocalypse hits. We need to learn from our behavior, instead of blaming the victim, nature, etc., if we want to survive the future. These social disasters are learning moments used to reevaluate our place in the world and further unite us together; we need to restore balance if we want to be prepared for all possibilities in our world.