|  The 2004 tsunami was truly shocking and will remain so for decades to come.
Why on earth must we end 2004 with such massive tragedy? Over two-hundred thousand are now confirmed dead and still counting. That scale of loss feels incomprehensible. it is more than the combined dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the 1940s. How can so many die in such few hours? Some questions perhaps are beyond answers...
Looking for anything positive in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsumani seems naive and distasteful and wrong.
Yet there may be at least one hope in the tragedy. The wave has given an opportunity – in a terrible form but still an opportunity – to remember even greater tragedies.
For myself donating US$100 to charity felt like a tiny response. It felt embarrassing to connect such trivial money with symbolism when people have lost lives and homes and loved ones.
But hopefully those that suffered will appreciate why dividing the donation in two felt like the right thing. Half of my money went to the Hong Kong Red Cross Tsunami Relief fund. The other US$50 went to Oxfam. It was flagged for general projects to end poverty rather than tsunami relief.
It's a small reminder, hopefully, that poverty kills so much more. The tsunami could be a chance to remember that millions more, not just hundreds of thousands, die from poverty all the time. Worse, these countless victims die from acts of man rather than acts of nature. Water-borne diseases, starvation, malnutrition, malaria. Familiar names, yes. But they are names that destroy more in a month than that brutal wave destroyed in its brief hours of existence.
Remembering this seems the best and the most positive response to make... |
