Control: Some Things, Some Times

Photos of people and devastation in Haiti increase the burden on my heart for suffering people everywhere. Zimbabwe's troubles are not better. Refugees are still in camps, in limbo, wondering what language they should learn for where they will be sent. Immigrants in Europe are still alienated, or feel as if they are. Unemployment soars even in developed countries. Minimum wage is not enough to live on.

Some things we cannot ever control,
no matter how clever we think we are.

Some of these things are what we call natural disasters. Others are man made. Either way, many average individuals have little control over events that greatly affect them.

Still, people laugh, make love and wonder the outcome of the next game or match. Life must continue and we must choose well when we have choices to make.

• How do you cope with the overwhelming news we get from around the world?
• How do you reconcile the inconsistencies and injustices we see?
• What do you do with the info overload our technology provides?

Thinking more on Haiti's earthquake made me think back to another quake, this one resulting in little damage but was significant nevertheless.

Australia and New Zealand are worlds apart. However, a strong earthquake in the region in July brought the fierce rivals closer – 30cm to be precise.

The 7.8-magnitude quake appears to have jolted the South Island and moved it towards Australia, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Global positioning systems showed that Te Anau, a town in the remote Fiordland region, was now 10cm closer to Australia, it said, while the South Island's south-western tip, Puysegur Point, was 30cm (11.8ins) closer.

Ken Gledhill, director of the research organisation GNS Science GeoNet, told TVNZ that the changes showed the immensity of the forces involved.

"New Zealand has been very fortunate. This earthquake anywhere else would have caused huge damage," he said.

"It's taken us closer to Australia. The country is deforming all the time because of being on the plate boundary, but this has done it in a few seconds, rather than waiting hundreds of years."

Although the earthquake was New Zealand's biggest in 78 years, it caused only slight damage to buildings and property when it struck Fiordland, west of Invercargill, New Zealand's southernmost and westernmost city. The Guardian

Different day. Different place. Different result.