There are just no words

[misscam]

I guess you are all aware of the great tragedy caused by an earthquake off Sumatra by now. Tsunamis have crushed communities and swept people out to sea in several countries. It may yet be the greatest ntural disaster in modern times. No one quite know how bad it is yet, due to the utter chaos and remote areas affected.

Norway's lost 13 and we got hundreds missing. Small number compared to the utter devestation of the countries directly affected, but a large number for tiny us, who very rarely lose people in large number in disasters. This may be the worst we've ever had in decades. And we have a large number of Sri Lankan Tamils living in our country and many of them have lost family. I can almost feel their pain in my own heart, still struggling with my own recent loss. So much loss, so much pain, and yet the sun will rise in the morning over the still grave of the ocean.

This does remind how much the Earth is our cradle, our mother, our feeder - and our killer. There is no mercy in it. But then, we haven't shown the Earth much mercy at times either. And life seems ever fragile in the great roar of the sea.

And why does it always take such great loss of life for us to realise this and come together?

Comments

[huinesoron.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be nice if a disaster like this had a galvinising effect, drawing the world fully together in support of science and leading to great leaps in our understanding of the natural world? If we could all pull together to forget things like profit and just help them, no debts or anything?

If only.

Well, I guess there's one thing -- there's no way in Aman that anyone can declare it a Terrorist Attack.

... is there?

[misscam.livejournal.com]

If only indeed. But sadly, memories are short. This week's catastrophe is next year's distant echo.

If this is a terrorist attack, the terrorist is Earth itself.

[undeadgoat.livejournal.com]

Why did it have to be Christmas vacation?

Is what I want to know.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Because to the Earth, one day is much like the other and Christmas has no special meaning.

[undeadgoat.livejournal.com]

I know, I know . . . it was rhetorical.

But if it hadn't been Christmas, Milano wouldn't be there. See?

[misscam.livejournal.com]

And then it would be someone else's friend.

There is no justice, sense or timing to these things. They just hit and we all become subject to randomness and coindicents. It sucks.

[undeadgoat.livejournal.com]

There wouldn't be as many tourists, either, making the international, and possibly total, death toll rather lower. And making the rest of the world care less, I suppose . . . I know everyone's someone's friend, but why does it have to be *my* friend?

(Still rhetorical.)

[ekwy.livejournal.com]

Hey? You wanna worry together?

Just for the record: I refuse to believe she's hurt. She'll be fine, and we're going to go and see The Phantom of the Opera when she gets home.

[undeadgoat.livejournal.com]

*worries together with you*

She's fine. The phones are cut off, that's all.

[ekwy.livejournal.com]

Yes. One can wonder why.

*suddenly feels very small and insignificant*

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure there's ever a satisfying respone to "why" when tragedies occur. In this world, not everything has a reason we can understand.

[elenculda.livejournal.com]

That was very profound.

I don't know why shared grief is so often necessary to band people together. It would be nice if nations could join with one another because of a joyous event, but I suppose that would be too easy? Humans enjoy making things harder for themselves.

It's funny how Nature can be viewed as evil, simply because it takes lives. Evil is malice, an intent to cause harm. Nature is simply the rhythm of the earth, and humans are affronted by it because they cannot yet seem to rise above it -- not quite. For all our plundering of the earth's resources, we still have not managed to tame the seas, the tornadoes, the great shifting of the tectonic plates, and subconsciously this angers people, and frightens them -- they feel helpless.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I am saddened by this tragedy, but at the same time I can only accept that it happened and at the very least it was not an act committed with the intent to hurt.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

I suppose we're brought up to think taking lives is wrong and thus tend to shift it onto nature as well. But how do you apply human morals to the Earth or to the Universe itself? The Universe is both destroyer and creator, as it must be. There must be an end to life for new life to come. But when we're caught in waves of destruction, I can understand why it's easy to label evil. In our world, we think in morals and good and evil and we forget the Earth is not human, nor is it ours to tame.

[elenculda.livejournal.com]

But how do you apply human morals to the Earth or to the Universe itself?

I don't think you can. Nature cannot have morals; it simply is. When dealing with morals, you must be considering beings with sentience.

But I see where you're coming from; it is easy to mislabel nature as evil because humans view the taking of life as a cruel act. And thus, even though logic would insist otherwise, even a nonsentient being or thing is easily construed as evil if it threatens life.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

When you value life, what threatens it might feel evil even when it really is caused by events or things that really have no such motivation. Diseases also tend to get labelled evil for the suffering they cause, but in the light of logic, it is really hard to say they are evil.

[elenculda.livejournal.com]

Right on.

I don't think we're arguing so much as agreeing with each other :)

[adoraheatherly.livejournal.com]

I wish I had profound words at this moment but all I can say is that my thoughts are with you and everyone else affected by this tragedy.
Please take care of yourself and keep your loved ones close. Every moment of this life is truly so precious.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm not exactly directly affcted, though. As far as I know, I don't have any family or friends lost. But in such a small country, we all tend to feel affected when suffering such a great loss.

But our loss pales compared to the countries hit and all we can do is just help the survivors as best we can. It just feels so little when you look at the destruction.

[belegcuthalion.livejournal.com]

I was in great fear because one of my closest virtual friends is an indonesian; fortunately she doesn't live on Sumatra, but on Java. But the increasing number of victims is terribly crushing. And at first we were told about four german tourists whose death can be confirmed; but now it seems as if a hotel somewhere in Phuket with Hundreds of german guests was destroyed, and much more lives are lost.

That hurts.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Yeah. We have a similar situation with hotels in Khao Lak were hundreds of Scandinavians stayed just totally flattened. Some of them were resorts for families with young children.

I have a nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach that this will get much, much worse.

[belegcuthalion.livejournal.com]

I have a nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach that this will get much, much worse.

I'm afraid you're right. Now several hundred of german tourists are missing in Phuket and Khao Lak. I just saw a report about Khao Lak and the first images, and they made my blood freeze. And then you see the first tourists returning to german airports, with bruised, pale faces, trying to speak about the unspeakable and bursting into tears in front of the microphone.

I'm feeling sick.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Me too. The longer it goes and the higher the numbers get, the sicker I feel.

[aervir.livejournal.com]

During my last term in England, I got to know a very nice girl from Malaysia, but unfortunately, I've lost her e-mail address and cannot even ask her whether she and her family members are okay. I only hope I'll see her again, safe and sound, in January...

I think there are now more than an estimated 50, 000 victims. It's unbelievable. And there's nothing one can do. Well, I'm going to donate some money to the charity organizations that are working down there right now, and everyone who has lost somebody will be in my thoughts -- but that feels so damned insignificant.

[anckyria.livejournal.com]

One does indeed feel so very, very small and insignificant. The number of casualties is something that's very hard to fathom, especially when sitting here in Finland, safe and sound. The best I can do is donate money and hope that my friend near Kuala Lumpur is alive and all right.

[aervir.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the only (somewhat) reassuring aspect is that Malaysia isn't mentioned as often as Sri Lanka, Thailand or Indonesia. So I assume that it wasn't hit that hard...

[misscam.livejournal.com]

No, it wasn't. Sumatra shields it, more or less, so they've got less than a hundred confirmed dead so far. They were lucky. So many weren't.