Boxing Day Hell in Asia
Christmas was a quiet one for me this year. My kids were with their mom visiting her family, so it was just me and Santa on Christmas day.
I pulled the graveyard shift on Christmas eve, finishing work at seven in the morning and finally crawling into bed around eight. When I woke up at three thirty that afternoon, I drove to seven eleven, bought myself a Hungry Man turkey T.V. dinner and a Pepsi, and came home to have a quiet Christmas dinner with Alastair Sim, still my favourite Scrooge (1951).
I was feeling mildly sorry for myself until I turned on the news the next day. Suddenly, I felt pretty good about my life.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing: an earthquake centred in the Indian Ocean, and so huge it had actually affected the earth's rotation, had in the space of a few minutes killed over 14,000 people in 9 countries. And those numbers were just a preliminary count.
As of today, the official count (which doesn't include foreign tourists) sits at around 23,000:
Sri Lanka - 12,029
Indonesia - 4,991
India - 2,958
Thailand - 866
Malaysia - 52+
Maldives - 43+
Somalia - 3,000
Bangladesh - 2
It might seem a little off topic to comment here at the Nuggery, but since this site is about people and their relationships, it seemed entirely appropriate. My heart absolutely breaks for the tens of thousands of families affected by this massive tragedy.
I can't remember a disaster in my lifetime like it. 23,000. To give us generally unaffected westerners some perspective, that's roughly September 11 times eight. Of course, the numbers are only going to increase over the next few days and weeks.
Like a lot of people, I'm asking, why did this happen, where is God, what could have been done to better prepare people in the affected regions. All good questions.
But right now, I'm mainly just thinking about the families - the wives and husbands, the fathers and mothers, the orphans - who have to bury their kids, their spouses, their parents today. I can't even begin to relate to that kind of suffering, never mind the anguish of having to rebuild lives without homes and where most of the drinking water is now contaminated.
We can only do what we can do. If you are able to help, click here for a complete list of donor agencies.
I pulled the graveyard shift on Christmas eve, finishing work at seven in the morning and finally crawling into bed around eight. When I woke up at three thirty that afternoon, I drove to seven eleven, bought myself a Hungry Man turkey T.V. dinner and a Pepsi, and came home to have a quiet Christmas dinner with Alastair Sim, still my favourite Scrooge (1951).
I was feeling mildly sorry for myself until I turned on the news the next day. Suddenly, I felt pretty good about my life.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing: an earthquake centred in the Indian Ocean, and so huge it had actually affected the earth's rotation, had in the space of a few minutes killed over 14,000 people in 9 countries. And those numbers were just a preliminary count.
As of today, the official count (which doesn't include foreign tourists) sits at around 23,000:
Sri Lanka - 12,029
Indonesia - 4,991
India - 2,958
Thailand - 866
Malaysia - 52+
Maldives - 43+
Somalia - 3,000
Bangladesh - 2
It might seem a little off topic to comment here at the Nuggery, but since this site is about people and their relationships, it seemed entirely appropriate. My heart absolutely breaks for the tens of thousands of families affected by this massive tragedy.
I can't remember a disaster in my lifetime like it. 23,000. To give us generally unaffected westerners some perspective, that's roughly September 11 times eight. Of course, the numbers are only going to increase over the next few days and weeks.
Like a lot of people, I'm asking, why did this happen, where is God, what could have been done to better prepare people in the affected regions. All good questions.
But right now, I'm mainly just thinking about the families - the wives and husbands, the fathers and mothers, the orphans - who have to bury their kids, their spouses, their parents today. I can't even begin to relate to that kind of suffering, never mind the anguish of having to rebuild lives without homes and where most of the drinking water is now contaminated.
We can only do what we can do. If you are able to help, click here for a complete list of donor agencies.
posted by Paul Donnett at 10:59 PM
4 Comments:
thought-provoking, mootable pv. just my thoughts, well anyways gl & be chipper is what i say
Well done!
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