I'm sure we've all heard about the recent disasters which've hit Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and the surrounding regions. Once again men are forced to realise how weak and helpless we are against nature's forces, and men of faith are struggling again to understand why God let this be so... well, we wonder, but who are we to question? I don't know. I just pray for swift relief.
I remember, how, when we were still living in the East Coast, little tremors and seemingly-swaying lights would send my family - among others - scrambling to gather our beloved items and evacuate the building, assembling in ragged groups on Meyer Road. My dad had never felt comfortable living on a stretch of reclaimed land. Never did and never would. Just glad that we're away from the coast now, and grateful that Singapore's been geographically lucky.
23 000 dead and counting. Such a magnitude is difficult to imagine. Dad says he has a colleague holidaying with his family on some island... and he hasn't responded to his messages. Another family, friends of mine, had an extremely close call... they were driving up to Penang from KL. A lady we know from my wushu studio was in Phuket, staying in one of the worst-hit resorts, and nobody's managed to reach her. My Indian contacts... from the nature conservation circles... are fortunately all well and uneffected, but a fellow coordinator from Sri Lanka has been uncontactable and unresponsive. I can only pray that she's ok.
During the holidays my family has always gone on some form of vacation or another... to Bintan, Penang, or other resorty places nearby. We had very nearly done so this Christmas. It's just scary when I think of how
it could have so easily happened to us...
But anyway... who'd have known? Who'd have expected? Floods in China and typhoons in Japan, maybe, but in the Indian Ocean? One of my Indian contacts had this to say,
"It was pretty unfortunate. The extent of damage would have been reduced if India and Sri Lanka had proper warning systems. The cause due to environmental changes is very very difficult to examine, since the tsunami waves were a result of seismic earthquake which cannot be controlled."
We gotta expect the unexpected. Cliche.
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