note from a teacher, teaching in the wealthiest university in thailand:

i walked into class today. asked my students if they had read/watched
the news today, yesterday, the day before...NOPE.
i asked them why not.
the ones who could verbalize themselves (in particular one of my girl
chinese students who is wonderful and sweet and speaks so well) said
she doesn't care about the news because those things happen far away
and they don't affect her and her life.
yes so i nearly lost it as they all started talking about playing
computer and wanted to go to another country to go shopping.
so then i began to play videos of the earthquake in haiti, tsunami in
thailand, earthquake in china, hurricane katrina...
and gave them the "they are people too. they have mothers and fathers
and brothers and sisters and they need help, what if it happened in
your country or to your family. they are simply humans who feel who
need help"
i got some stares.
and then my chinese student handed lollipops to everyone in the class
with a big smile and they all left.

as;dlkfja;sdlkfjasl;dkfj.