Look up

Theme 1: natural disasters and human responsibility

[Before you start] The exam papers are face down on every seat, blank side up (or a classmate hands them out face down as you walk up). Walk to the centre. If a greeting is expected, say it now. Then click once: the exam appears on screen.

Surprise exam.

  1. 1When was this building built?
  2. 2Who checked that it is safe?
Turn your paper over. [pause] Surprise exam. Five seconds. [wait five seconds, look at your watch] Pens down. Hands up if you know question one. [wait] Question two? [wait] Me neither. Deadpan, like a strict teacher. The laugh comes on “Me neither”. Only say it if it is true for you.
Monday 6 February
3:17

Beirut time

This exam has been given before. At three seventeen in the morning, February sixth, twenty twenty-three, an earthquake hit southern Turkey. “Three seven-TEEN”, so nobody hears “seventy”. Drop the teacher voice here: this part is serious.
Moments later, Lebanon was shaking. [pause] In Turkey and Syria, buildings failed. More than fifty thousand people died. [pause] We called it a natural disaster. Say “FIF-ty thousand” slowly and let it sit.

“natural
disaster”

“A hazard is natural, disasters are not.” UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

But there’s no such thing as a natural disaster. [pause] Then take one step before the vote, so it starts a new part.

Which one killed more people?

Circle size: energy releasedCircle size: people killed
Haiti, 2010magnitude 7.0more than 100,000
Chile, 2010magnitude 8.8about 500

Chile released about 500 times more energy. Source: USGS

Haiti’s toll is disputed: estimates run from about 46,000 to 316,000, most above 100,000. The circles use 100,000 and 525.

Twenty ten. Two earthquakes. Haiti: magnitude seven. Chile: eight point eight, hundreds of times more energy. Which one killed more people? [pause] Let them guess in their heads; point left for Haiti and right for Chile, matching the screen. Say CHIL-ee and HAY-tee.
Chile: about five hundred. Haiti: more than a hundred thousand, by most counts. [pause] Chile mostly followed strict building rules. Haiti’s were not enforced. Let the flip land before you speak.

Same exam.
Different answers.

It doesn’t make mistakes.
It corrects them.

Same exam. Different answers. And the answers were written years before, in concrete.
The earthquake doesn’t make the mistakes. It just corrects them. [pause] Slowly and seriously.

معليش

ma3leshnever mind
In Lebanon, we have a magic word: ma3lesh. We say it to teachers all the time. [let them laugh] An earthquake is the one teacher who never says ma3lesh. Say “ma3lesh” in your natural voice with a small shrug. Smile at the judges as a group. Lower your voice for the last sentence.

Our own
earthquakes.

Tripoli, 8 February 2026. 15 people killed.

No earthquake that day.

[Say nothing. Let the room read it for a second, then click.] This is a silent beat: the line of Lebanon’s past earthquakes says “this can happen here” for you.
Last February, in Tripoli, a building collapsed. No earthquake. Fifteen people died. [pause] Not because of the families inside. Because of years of neglect. [pause] Plain and slow, with no dramatic voice. Pause two seconds before the next click so the deaths and the ceiling do not hit at once.
Look at question one again. [pause] Now look up. [look up yourself, hold three seconds] Who built this ceiling? Did anyone check it? [pause] I’m not saying it’s dangerous. I’m saying we trust it with our lives, and never ask. Say “look up” lightly. Keep the room lights on. If someone looks anxious: “It’s okay. You can look back at me. This isn’t about this room. It’s about the buildings we haven’t built yet.”

A hotter planet,
harder exams.

IPCC, 2021: more warming brings more heat extremes, and more fire weather around the Mediterranean.

The answer key

  1. 1Ask when your building was built.
  2. 2A crack? Don’t say ma3lesh. Report it.
  3. 3It shakes? Drop, cover, hold on.

معليش

ma3leshnever mind
On a hotter planet, the exams get harder: more heatwaves, more fires. [pause]
Now turn your paper upside down. That’s the answer key. [pause] One: tonight, ask your family when your building was built. Turn your own copy upside down first. Wait for the papers to turn: that sound is part of the moment.
Two: see a crack? Don’t say ma3lesh. Report it.
Three: when it shakes, drop, cover, hold on. [pause]
One day, some of us will sign papers saying a building is safe. Someone will whisper: ma3lesh. Really whisper it.
Don’t. [hold two seconds] Click and say it at the same moment. Pronounce the final T.
--:--

Nature decides when.

Like any surprise exam, the next earthquake already has a date and a time. [pause]
It could be today. [pause] Let them see the clock is real: today’s date, the time right now.
Nature decides when. [pause two beats] The slowest lines of the speech start here.

We decide
how many.

We decide how many. [hold three seconds, look at your classmates] Thank you. “We” means the people in this room. Look at them, not the judges.

Sources

  1. USGS, M7.8 Pazarcık earthquake, 6 Feb 2023, 01:17 UTC (03:17 in Lebanon). earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us6000jllz
  2. Arab News, “Lebanon rocked by deadly quake in Türkiye, Syria”, 6 Feb 2023. arabnews.com
  3. AFP via Gulf News, combined toll 59,488 in Türkiye and Syria, Feb 2024. gulfnews.com
  4. UNDRR, #NoNaturalDisasters: “A hazard is natural, disasters are not.” undrr.org/our-impact/campaigns/no-natural-disasters
  5. USGS, magnitude and energy: each whole step is about 32 times the energy. usgs.gov
  6. UN OCHA / ReliefWeb, Chile earthquake fact sheets, 2010. reliefweb.int
  7. USGS, overview of the 2010 Haiti earthquake; death toll estimates vary widely. usgs.gov/publications/overview-2010-haiti-earthquake
  8. AP, Bajak, “Chile, Haiti quakes”, 28 Feb 2010; NPR, Kausel, 1 Mar 2010. mprnews.org, npr.org
  9. Daëron et al., Yammouneh fault paleoearthquakes, BSSA 97(3), 2007. doi.org/10.1785/0120060106
  10. Al Jazeera, AP, The New Arab: Tripoli building collapse, 8 Feb 2026. aljazeera.com, newarab.com
  11. IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report, Summary for Policymakers, 2023. ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr
[Only for questions. Press Home to start again.]