2004-12-29 - 2:24 p.m.

I Would Be Remiss

Though I update less and less often, I'd be remiss to not talk about my reaction to the Tsunami. I'm not surprised by the damage caused or that this happened, but the number of fatalities is unbelievable. In fact, I'm somewhat surprised this never happened sooner.

As a child, I tended to worry too much. I'd have nightmares about dying in tornados or tidal waves. While a tsunami is not a tidal wave (this is the tidal estuary engineer in me speaking), the idea of drowning in a wall of water is the same. I nearly drowned several times as a child. After one time, my mom decided that I needed to learn how to swim and so I went to my second swimming course.

I am a bad swimmer to this day. I hate swimming pools. Oceans are something I typically avoid. And part of my fear is related to what happened Saturday / Sunday this year.

It bothers me that these governments didn't have a beach warning system. Hawaii is supposed to have a system to warn people, but these governments didn't. Is it that they couldn't afford such a system? Perhaps not, but when I look at the leaders of these nations and the fact that many of the places hit were actual resorts, I really wonder.

I also am bothered by the continual pictures of a Swedish baby who's parents are missing. I swear that this kid is in over 5% of the pictures, and yet far less than 5% of the people lost were blue eyed, blonde haired Swedes. My anger isn't directed at the child. My anger isn't directed at the Red Cross, which probably is benefiting from using this child�s image to get more donations.

My anger is at our society. One in which scientists have long argued in favour of a prevention / warning networks and are ignored. One in which of 100,000s of survivors, the one the media focuses on isn�t somebody who will have to live the rest of his or her days in the impacted areas, but a visitor.

The child will be returned to Sweden and I feel sorry for him. But I also would like to think that had the child not been there in the first place and his picture not shown everywhere that the response from the West would be the same. And I honestly wonder if that is the case.

I'm still in complete shock.

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