Remembering Tsunami Disaster 2004

Filed under: Knowledge

It’s been a year since the biggest natural disaster of our life time which took the lives of more than 200,000 people. Head over to bbc for an in depth on the Tsunami Disaster. Take a moment to reflect on what happend a year back, find out more on the state of the Indian Ocean tsunami warning system, how aid money has been put to use, and how have people who have been affected by the disaster coped with it.

Here are some pictures I had collected last year, as I was glued to the TV and internet, like most of you, as the might of nature unfolded.

For me, a disaster like this puts things in perspective. In our busy day to day lives, we often ignore the fact that we are–after all–tiny beings on a rock flying around in space, almost like being in a plane on a clear day and no turbulence. You have this feeling of being still, even though you are jetting across the sky at over 500mph. Disasters of colossal proportions are inevitable; the chances of being blind sided are high; if it happened over there a year back, then it could happen here–in your backyard–next; maybe even everywhere.

In the moment of the emotional aspects of such a tragedy, and the number of human lives lost, we rather not think we are like bugs on a windshield when it comes to something bigger and more powerful. If it’s a giant wave today, it could be a 100 mile wide asteroid tomorrow. Am I trying to say ignore what happened, no, absolutely not, but rather reflect on it, what we can learn from this from a bigger picture point of view? It’s not a question of end of the world either; it’s a question of how we can assure our survival, and by that I don’t mean you or me, but humanity.

Do we keep getting shocked by disasters and the number of lives lost, and move on with our lives once it is no longer in the news, leaving it to the scientists, priests, environmentalists, and the politicians we elect to figure it out, or do we start putting our heads together, and move in the direction of taking steps to not only protect and preserve the rock we live on, but think in terms of how we can survive in the face of colossal disasters that could affect us as a species. Do we have it in us, or will the future generations have it in them, the qualities our ancestors had, to survive, as they watched the dinosaurs perish?