Earthquakes

I read yesterday that crowds were escaping from Rome in fear of an earthquake that Raffaele Bendandi (well, well-passed away) allegedly predicted more than 10 years ago to happen on May 11, 2011. Today I saw somewhere that even the Chinese store keepers have been shutting down their business and taking off. My Italian friend V. -who has a flat in Rome for rent- did comment and mock such predictions this morning when I asked her.

The prediction failed because, indeed, the Earth did not move today in Rome, but in a large town in Spain, Lorca, about 40 miles from Murcia, in the SE. It happened in the afternoon, with two main shake-offs of around 5 points in the scale of Richter, preceded and followed by replications of lesser magnitude. Last replication was about 2 hours ago and people are scare to go into their houses for the night. Cornices, facades and even buildings and belfries fell down, panes scattered. Some folks have died and others, wounded.

The area reposes just at the friction region between tectonics (African and Eurasian). Although minor tremblings are common, it seems to exist a pattern of energy peaks released every 60 years of magnitude about 6 points in Richter scale. The last earthquake of this magnitude was that of Granada, 1884.

I must say that the first question that came to my mind when I learned about this was how acquaintances I have there would be affected, if so. I used to drive once a month at least through the area, and stay in Aguilas. I remember this man, head of R&D of the factory in Villaricos for many years, originally from Lorca. He said to me: "I do respect sales people. I myself started as a salesman. I worked for X for just 6 months. I could not make it longer. The first month I was in Lorca and did the job in one week. And I said, this is a piece of cake. Unfortunately, as soon as I tried other areas, I was pretty miserable. And I said, this is not for me".

But also, what about the factory in Alcantarilla? It is just a few miles away from Lorca. And what about the API facility in Alhama? And... Oh, God, I can hardly remember what they make, nor even their names... This two places in Beniel.

I am a little surprise that despite how much and profoundly I dislike my previous job and the tough time I had with it, I miss as much deeply the unique things of it: the travelling and the long nights driving back; the stories clients and customers tell me; the exciting challenges and the bitter disappointments and failures; the being alone most of the time and contemplating the world in silence and tormented by your own cycling thoughts. I was in Aguilas, sitting at the hotel, with the beach behind me, having a beer, a hamburger and a portion of salty almonds at the cantine (in between a noisy crowd), when Carles Pujol score that magnificent goal against Germany during the past World Cup.

A month ago, I walked along the South bank with a peculir Turkish guy of about my age, a muslim. We had been walking for a long time, so we sat down on a bench and start talking about the dull, gullible and depressing things two good men talk about when there is not any woman around to make their lives vibrate. And this guy, C., said to me: "Remember the earthquake in Turkey in 1999? I was at home, a tall building with many stories, surrounded by other tall buildings. The shaking came and 45 seconds after it there was not any building standing, apart from ours... Alberto, 45 seconds! That episode changed my life".

And he asked me: "What is the purpose of your life?".

And did not know what to answer.

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