Care To Share Your Views on the Tsunami?

Greetings. I am from Penang, Malaysia. The Tsunami hit the beach 5 mins walk from my house. You can see the video clip of that on my website http://thanks4supporting.us/tsunami

Sadly in Sri Lanka my dad's 82 year old uncle was killed, along with his maid's 2 teenage daughters.

I would like to know if you would consider sharing your views on the events surrounding the tsunami. I made a site: http://surfandturf.biz and am hoping people will share openly.

 

The loss of life is absolutely staggering. After days of watching the death toll climb astronomically, dwarfing those we lost in 911 by a huge margin, I felt numb, but also angry @ myself because I was relieved that this hadn't happened to me.

There's nothing we can do but open our wallets. I guess we have to give the affected something to lean on...

 

What pisses me off is those organisations who take donations and only pass part of it on. It's big business. It's disgusting.

Before you donate, you better check twice how much money they take out of it.

 

the administrative costs of moving money is negligable. I wouldn't donate if it was under 95%, but even then the third party would make a tidy profit from a large body of donations.

 

Ok, this may not be PC (politically correct) but considering how poor the building standards are in third world countries, as well as the issue of overpopulation, it's should not be surprising that the toll on life has been so high. Humans are one of the least adapted species on the planet. We don't feel the need to adapt, instead, we conquer the environment, or so we think.

The people that went running out onto the ocean floor when the water began to retreat had no idea what was about to happen. Why, becuase they were so disconnected with the environment in which they live. I think we are all pretty much disconnected from our environment. Granted, it's been generations since a disaster such as this had occured. Because the threat was never taken seriously and the knowledge of the warning signs was not passed onto later generations, people stupidly gazed at the ocean in awe instead of realizing that it was the precursor to the wave and evacuating.

Don't get me wrong. I am very sorry so many lost their lives just as I'm sorry so many have lost their lives in so many other disasters or wars or what have you. It's always sad to know so many have perished and survivors are suffering. However, if we (humans as a whole) were proactive rather than reactive, such great losses would fewer and farther inbetween.

[stepping down from the soapbox]

 

Greetings, I would just like to express my condolances and wish I could come up with something reasurring to say, you have my sympathy and even though im not a big believer in god, you and your people have my prayers.

 

Nothing in the human tongue is 100% PC, my friend, but I didn't find that post offensive at all.

The key here is that the world is not and theoritically CANNOT be like the developed western world, bustling with information and life padding. There aren't enough resources to go around, and at the current state there is not enough opportunity. Sure, there a few nubs of information and ideas dotted across SW Asia and central Africa, but some of the most undeveloped, poor, contested, or primitive regions do not have acess to insant information and some see no need for it. Our ideal western lifestyle, where man lives in complete comfort and sheltered by his technological triumphs working in harmony with nature's mechanisms really can't be globally achieved. Governments are unstable, poverty rears its ugly head in some places much more often than others, and the turbulations of an unfattened and less fortunate society can lead to disregard for man's interaction with nature.

Domestic issues, human issues not subject to chance, will always come first. And when those are resolved (GOD WILLING) we can deal with nature as best we can. Health, civil strife, and self preservation will always come first. And in some regions strong, directed community effort proves a much harder task than for others, especially when looking after oneself is already a struggle or the government has little regard for human life.

 

Sitting comfortably far away up north in Iceland I didn't even hear about it (as I don't speak enough Icelandic to care about news on tv)
when the tsunami hit, but I do have relatives (as so many westeners do) that were on chistmas holiday in the "tsunami region" at the critical moment.
Only a freak-like spontanious decision to pack for a tourist tour 10-15 minutes before the first wave hit secured the lives of my relatives.
My sincerest sympathy with all that did loose someone close to them.

 

I think people all over the world pray for those who lost their friends and/or relatives during this natural disaster.

 

Having been recently hit by the hurricanes in Florida I can slightly understand the havok. Although the deaths having been commited are atrocious.

I also think it's incredible how many people are attempting to take advantage of the situation with donation scam sites stealing people's money. To shame.

 

Something useful did come from this devastation, as hard as it is to believe.

My geology professor explained that this is a very important scientific event. The powerful earthquake that caused the tsunami affected the entire planet, moving magnetic north, making the world slightly more round, and shortening our days by a few miliseconds. It's a facinating opportunity for study, he said, trying to be as PC as possible.

Oh well. I just hope the next great scientifc opportunity doesn't involve so much death.

 

Before and after pictures of the tsunami

 

That's amazing that it can effect so many things...

It really wakes us all up..we think that certain people are powerful and can cause maximum deverstation. But when it comes down to it...we are nothing. Nature's force is greater than any human one.

Dominic, That before and after picture is just...wow.

I can hear about it until im blue in the face, but when i actually see pictures -it really brings it back home just how incredibly huge this is/was. On english television a few weeks ago there was this programme about an English guy living in Thailand and he took the camera crew around all the wreckage afterwards... It was horrifying to see. I also heard that there was a some tourists that were carrying on with their holiday..lying on the beach whilst dead people were getting pulled out of the sea...WTF!

I read this story about a mother that had two children and could only choose to save one of them, because they were too heavy for her to carry both. There are no words to describe how awful it is.

My thoughts are really with the people that lives it effected.