Heartfelt Sympathy!

[Cathy C]

I sincerely hope that any of our Forum members who were involved in or have family/friends in the tsunami affected areas are safe and healthy. The videos I've seen of the destruction and loss of life are very frightening and sad. Peace, condolence and well wishes to the families there.

Cathy

 

[lahondas]

love the wind, and love the ocean, but together, it can be devastating. i too hope all are safe....

 

[gallagher672003]

Its too shocking for words. The sheer magnitude of the event opens your eyes to how insignificant we really are.

 

[direstraits]

Cathy, very thoughtful of you for bringing up this thread. The disaster is very bad (read: understatement), and while M'sia is not one of the more seriously affected nations, there are still (at last count) 53 dead, 34 missing and up to 5000 people affected. Now it's disease prevention as survivors are at risk of diseases such as cholera and typhoid. Luckily, I live further south and out of the coastlines, so we're okay. Tremors were reported, though I didn't feel anything.

I've a friend in who had been posted to Sri Lanka for a project, and no news from her yet. The waves hit there pretty badly, and I'm still awaiting news from her.

ds

 

[cajunmama]

Cathy, very thoughtful of you for bringing up this thread. The disaster is very bad (read: understatement), and while M'sia is not one of the more seriously affected nations, there are still (at last count) 53 dead, 34 missing and up to 5000 people affected. Now it's disease prevention as survivors are at risk of diseases such as cholera and typhoid. Luckily, I live further south and out of the coastlines, so we're okay. Tremors were reported, though I didn't feel anything.

I've a friend in who had been posted to Sri Lanka for a project, and no news from her yet. The waves hit there pretty badly, and I'm still awaiting news from her.

ds

Good to know you are okay, ds. I was worried but coudn't get to the computer until now. I hope your friend is okay.

 

[lies]

Yes, direstraits, I hope you hear from her soon as well.

I've been watching the news/CNN/BBC World a lot these last few days, and the images are just... unimaginable.

Living in Europe is a blessing in some ways.

 

[Cathy C]

I understand from geologic sites that one island actually MOVED 100 centimeters and the earth rotation wobbled for several milliseconds. THAT'S an earthquake!

So glad you're okay, direstraits, and hope your friend is well.

 

[direstraits]

Thanks, you guys - Cathy, cajunmama, lies, gallagher and lahondas - for your thoughts.

We managed to get in contact with my friend. She's not working near the coastlines, so she's safe, thankfully.

The dead has now exceeded 70,000. I don't know the words to frame my state of mind regarding this tragedy.

ds

 

[Jenem]

a friend of mine left for india on dec 24 and was staying on the southern end. we were all really worried about her until we did a bit more research and found she was staying on the west side (the east side, tamil nadu, was hit). i am making a donation to oxfam or the red cross today.

 

[Sun-SSS]

Letter in local newspaper

US seismologists knew more than an hour in advance that a tsunami would follow the earthquake off the coast of Sumatra but the appropriate communication tools were not in place to warn southern Asian authorities of the impending life-threatening danger.
Why not? Technology has made the world a smaller place. Why do we have to learn such harsh lessons before life-saving techniques become available?
With thirty minutes’ warning, tens of thousands of lives possibly could have been saved.
It makes me very angry—
Steve Sinclair.

Makes me angry, too. And I can’t believe that appropriate communication tools were not available. This is what we need to do—get angry, not sit around telling each other how sorry we feel. Apart from maybe making us feel noble, that does no one any good at all.

 

[Jenem]

i hear what you're saying Sun-SSS, but easier said than done. the harsh reality is that, sometimes, this is what it takes. not all the time, but sometimes - and, unfortunately, this time.

and nothing wrong with feeling noble - sympathy and nobility are the feelings that compel people to give to a cause.

from planetark: article
LOS ANGELES - The major obstacles to creating an early-warning system that could have saved many victims of Asia's massive tsunami are not money and technology, but poverty and political and cultural division besetting the region it hit, experts and officials said on Monday.

and from BBC news article
President Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka, which suffered the greatest loss of life, admitted on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that more thought should have been given to the possible effects of tsunamis.

She said: "We've never been affected by a thing like this before, so probably we got very lax about it. That's not an excuse, but that should be the reason."

 

[hay82]

Getting angry probably isn't the way to go about such a thing. This is unfortunatly the way the world works, something bad happens and then you learn from your mistakes. Just sad that it takes so many lives to make people see that there is a problem.
The countries affected by this are not rich so that can probably present a problem for a warning system, but then the rich countries need to make sure that there are funds to makes it happen.

 

[Sun-SSS]

i hear what you're saying Sun-SSS, but easier said than done. the harsh reality is that, sometimes, this is what it takes. not all the time, but sometimes - and, unfortunately, this time.

I'm sure you have a point here, Jenem, but I fail to see what it is. [What] is easier said than done, and [what] is what it takes?

The articles you quote say little to me. The first sounds suspiciously like weasel words. My opinion of "experts and authorities" is outlined elsewhere on forum. If someone somewhere knew what was likely to happen, and couldn't be bothered warning anyone, that amounts to the crime of the century. And "cultural and political divide" doesn't stop anyone picking up a phone or reading an Email. Poverty notwithstanding, they do have such things in SE Asia.

Holding Sri Lanka's president responsible sounds a bit like blaming the victim. How can anyone take precautions against such a thing as this? A bit of warning might have helped, but according to the letter I quoted, this was withheld.
Finally, yes, sympathy and nobility are human, natural and good; but prevention would have been better.

 

[hay82]

A bit of warning might have helped, but according to the letter I quoted, this was withheld.

From what you have qouted it sounds more like it was not possible to warn people since those with the information didn't know where to go with the information.

 

[Sun-SSS]

Getting angry probably isn't the way to go about such a thing. This is unfortunatly the way the world works, something bad happens and then you learn from your mistakes. Just sad that it takes so many lives to make people see that there is a problem.
The countries affected by this are not rich so that can probably present a problem for a warning system, but then the rich countries need to make sure that there are funds to makes it happen.

How can the fact that the countries affected are not rich have anything to do with it? You see a bus bearing down on a poor person, you don't warn him because he's poor, and you're not? This is the way your world works? Getting angry may not be the best way to go about such a thing, but lucky for you you weren't within reach of my fist when you said that.

 

[hay82]

How can the fact that the countries affected are not rich have anything to do with it? You see a bus bearing down on a poor person, you don't warn him because he's poor, and you're not? This is the way your world works? Getting angry may not be the best way to go about such a thing, but lucky for you you weren't within reach of my fist when you said that.

I think you are misunderstanding me. I say that it can be a problem warning the poor countries because they have no means of being warned and that I think it then becomes the rich countries job to make sure that such a system is in place. I don't say that we shouldn't care about the poor.

BTW I don't even understand how you came to that conclusion from what I had written.. ?

 

[Sun-SSS]

BTW I don't even understand how you came to that conclusion from what I had written.. ?

By reading it.

Your reasoning is specious. I communicate with SE Asia all the time, as easily as I am communicating with you, and as quickly. If I had reason to believe catastrophe was bearing down on their region I would let them know.

 

[hay82]

I communicate with SE Asia all the time, as easily as I am communicating with you, and as quickly. If I had reason to believe catastrophe was bearing down on their region I would let them know.

But can they get the information out to all those who need to be warned? I don't know how it is down there I only make a assumption based on what I hear in the news.

 

[Sun-SSS]

But can they get the information out to all those who need to be warned? I don't know how it is down there I only make a assumption based on what I hear in the news.

The point is, they (those in authority in Indonesia and elsewhere) didn't get the chance to warn anyone, because they weren't warned themselves, by those who knew. How they would have got the information out to those who needed it, well, the same way as would happen in your country, or mine, I suppose. Radio and TV are good means of communication. "Abandon everything! Gather your family! Go to higher ground! Take a radio and await further instruction!" Might have been the message, and thousands of lives been saved by it.

I don't know what picture you have in your head of South East Asia. It ranges from sophisticated modern cities to delightfully rural backwaters, but they don't communicate by smoke signals or something.

 

[hay82]

The point is, they (those in authority) didn't get the chance to warn anyone, because they weren't warned themselves. How they would have got the information out to those who needed it, well, the same way as would happen in your country, or mine, I suppose. Radio and TV are good means of communication.

If that is the case then I would say that there are people who need to be held accountable for it.

I don't know what picture you have in your head of South East Asia. It ranges from sophisticated modern cities to delightfully rural backwaters, but they don't communicate by smoke signals or something.

I assume that there are a lot of poor neighbourhoods that don't have easy access to TV or radio, but I could be wrong (That happens a lot).