When the impossible unfortunately becomes real

"Lo Imposible"

A few months ago we published an article about the Spanish film “The Impossible” which was a box office success, was hailed by critics and could take its female protagonist (Naomi Watts) to the stage of the Californian Oscars…

I was reading the newspaper the other day and it gave me both a lump in my throat and made my heart sink when I saw the image of Haiyan, the super typhoon which destroyed the Philippines and also hit both Vietnam and China.  Suddenly you realize that after having trembled from the comfort of your cinema seat while watching Juan Antonio Bayona’s film, the world is asking you to remember that reality is often worse than fiction and that the world can witness a catastrophic tragedy of biblical dimensions as if it wanted to make it clear who sent it here (or at least to make it obvious who has the upper hand)…

When we think of the ten thousand people, it is difficult to imagine the magnitude of the hit, a tremendous hit which devastated Tacloban, for example.  Numbers of this size tend to “distance us” a bit from the reality as these disproportionately large numbers, like the figures which are used in macroeconomics, go straight over our heads.            

But if we imagine a line of dead bodies on the floor in which every body is positioned behind the feet of the one before, creating a macabre assembly  line of death, and we imagine that this line goes on for more than 16km (sixteen kilometers takes a long time to cover on foot), we can then begin to get an idea of the colossal amount of lives which have been cut short, of the amount of destroyed families, the amount of shattered dreams and the amount of future lives which will never be the same again.

Speaking about natural disasters

I am now finding some consolation in the fact that I wrote an article about NGOs a few weeks ago which promoted solidarity and cooperation; it is something which we have to do for the victims of this terrible typhoon. Often when we see images of blood on the television on this devastatingly-large scale, we tend to squirm in our seats because it makes us feel uncomfortable and guilty to watch as we enjoy a cup of tea and pastry. It was reported on the radio that the NGO Save the Children estimates that about four million children have been affected by the disaster either directly, as a victim of the disappearance of one (or both) of their parents,  by the destruction of their house or by the loss of infrastructure. It is the experiences of the children in particular which affects me given that they’re not independent and depend on us. I then had the idea that I could teach my students about natural disasters while looking at vocabulary, speaking about NGOs and showing that there are many people who are cooperating with these organizations in different ways.

The fact that the disaster struck the Philippines (an archipelago whose name reminds us of its  historical connection with Spain and where surnames originating from Spanish are abundant) leads me to think that our language can be used as a tool to make others aware of the importance of cooperation, aid and information.

Beautiful Spanish Words

A few years ago, I carried out a survey among many important people linked to the Spanish language both in Spain and America in which I asked what they thought was the most beautiful word in Spanish. Obviously, they didn’t ask me (I’m just a poor, anonymous teacher...), but, if they had, I think I would have said that “compasión” is one of the most beautiful words in Castilian Spanish because it denotes a shared feeling, not only a feeling of pitying others but also of solidarity. In fact, if you read it literally, la con-pasión is something which we all need: to share our passion with someone, whether it is love for the Spanish language or love for those who speak it. This feeling of shared passion encourages me to pick up the phone and make a donation which will help the victims of this typhoon. I know that it’s not a lot but it’s still something.