I am just bewildered and horrified and in shock. Every time I see the news, the death toll in Asia has risen by thousands. It just overwhelms, and such a huge number — 20,000 dead as of this morning’s paper — is impossible to comprehend. Sometimes it seems easy to shut yourself off because it happened a long way away, to people you’ve never met.
Then this morning on CNN, they interviewed via phone Nate Berkus, the adorable, crush-worthy designer who’s Oprah’s new toy. I’ve never met him and don’t know him, but it suddenly brought it home. He described being hit by the wave, holding on for his life and watching bodies swirl around him… and he told us that his friend has not been found. One assumes that his friend was more than just a friend.
It’s when people tell their stories that the horror is revealed.
And only a few moments later, the hosts on CNN are laughing as if the world is a joyous place.
The Advocate has more about Nate’s friend, a photographer named Fernando Bengoechea, who has not yet been found.
Not to be morbid, but according to this site,
http://towleroad.typepad.com/towleroad/2004/12/_in_sri_lanka_i.html#comments
This guy was Nate’s partner
http://www.beateworks.com/featphotogr.html
I suppose there’s still hope he could turn up…
I’ll really try not to go off on a rant but your comment about the CNN laughing a few mintutes later is right on the mark. Gone are the days of reporters now is bobble head lookers that score well on focus groups.
I’m sure some people think I’m kidding and I can assure you I AM NOT. There are “Reporters” out there happy because it was a slow news day and now there’s a big breaking news and everybody is watching and the overnight numbers are UP!!! Weeeeeee
I think that the news about Nate and Fernando is what brings it home. There are numerous stories in a horror like this, but when you are a single gay man it’s sometimes hard to empathize with the usual stories that come from the disaster, from a far away part of the world and a culture you don’t know. But suddenly there is the story of a gay man who, while we don’t know, we at least know *of*; hearing of the probable loss of his partner through such a tragedy is something that made me shudder, and my brain immediately flashed on how devastated I would have been in that situation.
Suddenly it is a personal event.