One year after the Sichuan earthquake

Today is exactly one year after the Sichuan earthquake which killed 80,000 people. As I was in Shanghai on the anniversary I saw the media coverage first hand. It was a striking and moving experience
Most important of all, of course, rendering minute in scale all psychological reactions, was the overwhelming scale of the disaster. TV was dominated by memorial ceremonies and programmes on the events. They did their job of bringing out its scale professionally.
Despite outward similarities in terms of wreath laying, and a minute's silence, the content of the ceremonies had a significantly different content and atmosphere to similar events in Britain, the US, or Europe - because it is was without religious nonsense and illusions. None of the 'they have gone to a better place', 'God is looking after them' false comfort that distorts and numbs sensibility and diverts attention from the real tasks of what has to be done.
The events in Sichuan therefore came over as vastly more tragic because they were so - with all the suffering starker and more realistic.
The content of the ceremonies therefore equally brought out the responsibilities of society and the state clearly and directly - not to prepare for a future life but to give people a better life in the here and now.
President Hu Jintao's speech and accompanying broadcasts emphasised the role of society to help those, particularly for example children, whose whole lives will affected by this, the need of society to strengthen its ability to deal with and predict natural disasters and other practical issues. The coverage created a sense of the reality that only humanity and nature exist, there is 'no one' outside this, and all each of us sees is a tiny glimpse of how the world will develop which we can only and should only make the absolute most of - and that only society can everyone the opportunity to do so.
The event therefore gave a very illuminating and embryonic insight into the morality of a future and better society. It reaffirmed how humanity's sensibilities are distorted, coarsened and dulled by religion and the unrealism of such ceremonies in the West. Therefore, in addition to being a solemn and serious day, it was a very striking and powerful experience to have witnessed.
But I very deeply wish it had been something other than such a terrible event that gave such an insight and created this impression.