日本

Sometimes it seems like months go by without anything of note happening in the world. Other times, the major, globally important events stack up one on top of the other so quickly that even the news anchors can't keep up. I follow Anderson Cooper on Twitter (a bad habit I picked up during the January 25 revolution in Egypt) and every other tweet he's headed somewhere new, having been forced into a Sophie's Choice between this revolution and that, between Libya and Japan (Japan won this round).

I am heartbroken at the devastation that recently hit my one true forbidden love, Japan. And yet - and I want to say this very, very carefully - I am glad that due to Japan's foresight and meticulously earthquake-resistant infrastructure, there are fewer casualties than there might have been had this earthquake happened somewhere else with no such protections in place.

Then again, there's not much you can do about a tsunami in flat countryside, is there?

I am amazed at how we could practically watch the destruction unfold live, from many different viewpoints, via YouTube. I think it's a positive use of technology overall but I also feel slightly voyeuristic, like I've stolen a place at the window into Japan's suffering.

I hope and pray for a speedy recovery for them even as I know that the Japanese people are capable of great determination and resourcefulness.