Tsunami
More than 18,000 people are recorded dead.
Millions are affected. Most homeless. Many lost their loved ones. Many simply lost everything.
As Channel News Asia continues with reports of the devastation that affected countries are facing, I am typing this blog at home. Safe and sound in a country protected by land masses that we don't own. A protection that perhaps we as Singaporeans take so much for granted.
I am sad.
An unprecendented earthquake in the seabeds of Sumatra measuring 9 on the Richter Scale, created Tsunamis that no one in Asia ever seen before.
I just sneaked a peak at the newsbar, the death toll now is recorded as 23,000 dead.
I am sad.
How can we not be sad at such a disaster and tragedy? How can anyone not feel for the many orphans and widows or widowers that are created in an instant.
The saddest part of all for me, it seems that many of my fellow Singaporeans were simply more concern about their distrupted holiday than the theatre of tragedy that is surrounding us, less than two hours budget flight away.
How sad can we be?
I watched in horror when Channel News Asia reported about the Tsunami and in less than a few minutes, interviews of Singaporean holiday makers expressing the displeasure about not getting a full refund or complaints about their holiday plans being thawrted were filed.
No tinge of sadness. No comments of concern for our fellow Asians suffering around us. No statement of condolence to the families that lost their livelihood, through the death of the sole bread-winner, or simply the flooding of their land the toil for food.
No such things. Simply laments and complaints about refunds, re-routing of flights and rescheduled departures. How sad can we be.
These are my fellow Singaporeans. Living in a country where earthquakes and Tsunamis are simply geography exam questions or news we watch on television. A country where we are pre-occupied more with the latest rise and fall of COEs more than the rise of the death toll this one earthquake caused.
Am I being hard on ourselves? Maybe. Or were the comments by such interviewees not a representation of what the nation feels? I don't know. Perhaps, a simple question may help. What did we do when we first hear about the disaster?
Anyone offered a prayer?
So we continue to be sad. Both for those who are suffering this very minute. As well as for ourselves as Singaporeans.
Join me to pray. Just for a minute. Holiday can wait, just for a little while more.
Millions are affected. Most homeless. Many lost their loved ones. Many simply lost everything.
As Channel News Asia continues with reports of the devastation that affected countries are facing, I am typing this blog at home. Safe and sound in a country protected by land masses that we don't own. A protection that perhaps we as Singaporeans take so much for granted.
I am sad.
An unprecendented earthquake in the seabeds of Sumatra measuring 9 on the Richter Scale, created Tsunamis that no one in Asia ever seen before.
I just sneaked a peak at the newsbar, the death toll now is recorded as 23,000 dead.
I am sad.
How can we not be sad at such a disaster and tragedy? How can anyone not feel for the many orphans and widows or widowers that are created in an instant.
The saddest part of all for me, it seems that many of my fellow Singaporeans were simply more concern about their distrupted holiday than the theatre of tragedy that is surrounding us, less than two hours budget flight away.
How sad can we be?
I watched in horror when Channel News Asia reported about the Tsunami and in less than a few minutes, interviews of Singaporean holiday makers expressing the displeasure about not getting a full refund or complaints about their holiday plans being thawrted were filed.
No tinge of sadness. No comments of concern for our fellow Asians suffering around us. No statement of condolence to the families that lost their livelihood, through the death of the sole bread-winner, or simply the flooding of their land the toil for food.
No such things. Simply laments and complaints about refunds, re-routing of flights and rescheduled departures. How sad can we be.
These are my fellow Singaporeans. Living in a country where earthquakes and Tsunamis are simply geography exam questions or news we watch on television. A country where we are pre-occupied more with the latest rise and fall of COEs more than the rise of the death toll this one earthquake caused.
Am I being hard on ourselves? Maybe. Or were the comments by such interviewees not a representation of what the nation feels? I don't know. Perhaps, a simple question may help. What did we do when we first hear about the disaster?
Anyone offered a prayer?
So we continue to be sad. Both for those who are suffering this very minute. As well as for ourselves as Singaporeans.
Join me to pray. Just for a minute. Holiday can wait, just for a little while more.
posted by powerdonk at Monday, December 27, 2004
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