Two Flight Catastrophes in Four Months: it's our loss

March 8, 2014: Flight 370 went missing with 239 people aboard.

July 17, 2014: Flight 17 shot down by military forces, with 295 people aboard.

These two catastrophes happened to occur to the same airline company: Malaysia Airlines.

Over 500 lives are lost. Over 500 families are devastated.

If each of these lives have 5 close family members, over 2, 500 people are suffering from huge pain. If each of the lives have 5 close friends, another 2,500 people are going through extreme sadness. Indeed, it is the loss of the whole world.

It is easy to point finger when things go wrong, and try to figure out who is the victim, and who is the responsible. But I think it is not the time to separate who is who: in the end, we all suffer, and we are all responsible, although some people are directly responsible and some are directly traumatized.

When we live big, our heart becomes big. We don't have a clear defense line between the "enemy" and ourselves any more. We don't say something like, "you are the Malaysian, we are the Chinese, and they are the Americans" - instead, it is "us."

To study Asian cities, is not to tell apart Asian cities from the rest of the world. It is to appreciate Asia, just like we should appreciate any other culture and the people, and bring them as part of "us."

Defense vs. Team mode (author's diagram)

Devastated families (picture courtesy of internet)

Anonymous people comforting the loss of the mankind
(picture courtesy of internet)