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

Comments

[sorceror_ets]

The situation also points out that globalisation is no longer a concept, it has begun and having overwhelm us is an inevitability - we feel empathy for people who we've never met before suffering in a foreign land that some of us may never set foot on.

And that's also the problem of postmodernism - our technological advancements have somehow left out certain things like the early warning device - we have become a 'risk society', if you will.

[sorceror_ets]

I would like to look at it in a different way.
Retrospectively its easy to see where the shortfalls are. Its like picking which stock to buy so that you will make money after whatever period you were planning to hold on to the shares for. The best hope is an educated guess, and there will always be some shit around for you to step on so you might lose all your money.

Funding and manpower are limited. How often does such types of calamity hit somewhere like Phuket? Someone who spends money on an early warning system might get laughed off if it doesn't get used. In addition, if I were to be my cynical self, I would say that the chances of this happening in tourism oriented place where money is of a higher priority, something like this would not be high up in a Christmas wish list.

Its a tragegy nonetheless.