Misplaced Fear: The Wave that Ended 2004 for South & Southeast Asia

[hatasan]

I read a report somewhere, how much money the Asian countries throw in to prevent a major terrorist attack and yet in the end, it was Mother Nature who ignited the fuse, causing damages more than man could possibly do, short of a nuclear attack. No offense to the Americans but 9/11 pales in comparison to the tsunamis in terms of lives consumed. And guess how much money Asia, especially those hit by the tsunamis, spend on early warning system? A pittance, compared to the amount of money they spend on anti-terrorists beefing.

I would have laughed at the irony, if it weren’t so macabre.

What quarrel, what harshness, what unbelief in each other can subsist in the presence of a great calamity, when all the artificial vesture of our life is gone, and we are all one with each other in primitive mortal needs?
~ George Eliot