Harvest of the Grim Reaper

"When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions"
--- Hamlet

A more poetic way to say that "it never rains but pours". For South Asia in 2004's Boxing Day, this was an understatement as countries like Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Maldives and all those nameless, forgotten islands in Indian Ocean found themselves devastated by tidal waves that left hundreds of thousands dead and with the death toll still climbing with each passing day.

It wasn't too long ago that the papers were screaming about reliable information from intelligence agencies regarding the possibilities of terrorist strikes in Indonesia and Thailand during the festive season. However, while everybody looked inwards, death struck from outside, from the seas far away. The Republic of Singapore Navy's advertisement read "Life would never be the same without safe seas." How true, that is! But the danger this time came not from pirates, enemy warships or terrorists, but from the "Acts of God". This calamity showed that however hard those jihadists tried to kill in the name of God, they could never beat God himself at his own game in dealing death at unexpected times (particularly during periods of celebration, 2003 Boxing Day saw an earthquake devastate Iran and killing thousands. Perhaps the dour and gloomy Puritans were right, pleasure is sin). With such catacylsmic casualties, there is one thing that we can be sure: there would be no terrorist strike in Indonesia in perhaps the next one month. Not that, I believe that this calamity has taught these slaves of the Grim Reaper humility, but that delivering terrorist attack at a time when so many have already died or were suffering would certainly only earn the anger of the international community, even those who might have sympathize with the jihadists.

This calamity also exposed one cruel fact about the world, when a country is poor, it tends to be unprepared for all kinds of disasters. While there are dozens of detectors in the Pacific Ocean that would warn countries in that region of any Tsunami, there is not a single one in the Indian Ocean. It seems to me that the only reason is simply that the countries that are near the Indian Ocean are the poorer countries while the Pacific Ocean is bordered by some rich states like Japan and USA. Only now, governments start waking up to the idea that they should install some in the Indian Ocean too after hundreds of thousands have died.

There is also a most ironic side to this tragic episode. Economists and analysts have commented that the damage to the world economy would be minimal (with the exception of Sri Lanka, which according to the lady at the Sri Lanka High Commission, a large part of Sri Lanka's income come from the tourism spots at the coast and with much of those spots gone, the country would be severely affected economically). This is despite the hundreds of thousands of deaths. Contrast that with the relatively small casualties in the September 11 attack of 5000 dead, which hit the world economy so hard that many countries slided into recession. But then again, the difference in effects is due to the wealth and strategic importance of the countries affected. It is a cruel fact, but when hundreds of thousands of poor people died, the world still moves on without a glitch........