Indian Ocean Tsunami - looking back ....

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How fast time has past. It has been one year since the tsunami struck last year. I remember myself having glued to the news for the few days after the disaster. I can remember my sorrow when I saw the news clips being shown.

Initially it was just my curiosity to see how extensive and where the disaster has struck. News came in quick. Firstly, the main focus was on Aceh, Sumatra and Phuket in Thailand. As the day progress, more news came in with reports of damages in India and Sri Lanka. A day or two later, it was reported that ripples of the disaster was felt as far away as the east coast of Africa.

News bulletin were mainly focused on the tsunami disaster. The initial report of tens of thousands of victim were later proven to be grossly an under-estimate. As hours passed, it became clear that the number of casualties stretched to at least a hundred thousands.

The next few days, came clips of the tsunami itself. Amateur video clips which were obtained by the broadcasters were shown. It showed how the tsunami struck and its destructive powers. Although the clips looked threatening, the destructive power were already much diminished. One can only wonders at the destructive power when it is at its peak.

The most disturbing news broadcast came in later. This was when the number of body bags were shown. I remember a news report on CNN about the number of dead in Banda Aceh. Accompanying the report were clips where body bags were placed on a section of the road. This seen was a very sad one and almost brought tears to my eyes. Although I worked in the hospital, were death is a everyday occurence, the sheer number of body bags still brings about much sorrow. Till this day whenever I remembered that particular scene, my eyes will be filled with tears.

With disasters, comes the good side of human nature. Over the next few weeks after the tsunami, there were reports of how people helped each other. There were firstly a lot of money in the form of donations being poured to the various charitable organisations which sends aids to the stricken area. There were also numerous reports of locals - people who survived the disaster - helping each other either with the grim task of recovering the dead bodies or helping with the task of locating lost persons. There were those who helped out in local hospitals. People from elsewhere flew into the affected area just to help out in whatever way they can.

When the true picture finally came to light, the extend of disaster was astonishing. The origin of the tsunami was due to an earthquake with its epicentre just to the north of Sumatra. The magnitude 9 earthquake triggered off the tsunami. Its destructive powers struck countries bordering the Indian Ocean the hardest. Sumatra (in Indonesia), Penang (in Malaysia), Phuket (in Thailand), Burma, Andaman Islands, Tamil Nadu (both in India), east coast of Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and even Somalia, Kenya and Mozambique were affected. Elsewhere there were recording showing an increase in the tides as far east as the South China Sea. There were 200000 people dead or unaccounted for. The cost of destruction were estimated to be in the billions.

After one year, the rehabilitation and rebuilding of lives is still going on. Much still have to be done to rebuild the lives of the victims. Although material things are slowly being acquired, who knows how long the survivors will harbour the loss of their loved ones.

Once again, Nature had shown us who really ruled the world. Maybe its a reminder to the human race that we are basically one - no matter the language, colour, race or religion. If Nature strike no single people is affected as amply shown by the tsunami incident. Nature also shown us that we are all basically good at heart. Whenever a disaster strike, there are always reports on selfless people who come to help - again irrespective of language, colour, race or religion.

If anything 'good' had come out of this disaster is the end of insurgency in Aceh, Sumatra. For the last 30 years, the Achenese had been fighting a guerilla war for independence from the Indonesian government. Although there had been many previous meetings between the warring sides, nothing concrete had been achieved. However after the tsunami, within months, an agreement was reached with started the whole process of reconciliation and autonomy. The latest report was that the peace process is going according to plan.

Maybe we should heed Mother Nature....