On a grey, overcast and relatively cool morning here in Khrungthep it is possible to feel depressed about the state of world affairs:  Killer tornadoes have ravaged the American midwest; a 7.9-magnatiude earthquake in China has killed thousands has trapped 900 students in a collapsed secondary school; tens of thousands have died and hundreds of thousands more continue to suffer after the cyclone in Myanmar a week ago. 

Each new tragedy brings with it fresh tears and worries.  But each tragedy also provides another opportunity to demonstrate the resilience of humanity.  We rally together to support our fellows, we provide aid, we give generously and we make sacrifices.  And out of these tragedies new lives are built, lessons are learned and sometimes life even improves.

Greensburg, Kansas was wiped off the map last year by a tornado, right.  Today the once-dying town is rebuilding in an economically and environmentally sustainable way with a new optimism and new opportunities that didn’t exist before.  

Aceh Province in Indonesia, the hardest-hit area in the December 2004 tsunami, had suffered from twenty-nine years of war between the central government and rebels of the Free Aceh Movement before the waves devastated the province, killing nearly a quarter of a million people.  While the physical reconstruction has been painful and sometimes slow, the tsunami helped bring about a peace agreement between the Indonesian government and the rebels and the first free elections in December 2006.

Hopefully, from the tragedies of this past week will bloom similar opportunities, change and rebirth.