I was reading the news today about the horrifying landslide that killed roughly 300 lives in Central Java. It's been a tumultous past year or so to say the least. Let's recount the damage shall we?
26th Dec 04 - Indian Ocean Tsunami kills 275000, by far the most devastating natural disaster in recent memory.
6th Feb 05 - Heavy flooding in Pakistan kills 406
14th Feb 05 - Gas mine in China explodes killing 209 miners
22nd Feb 05 - Magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck Iran killing 604, levelling many villages
Feb 05 - Extreme winter weather conditions kills more than 1400 over a 1 and a half month period.
18th Mar 05 - More heavy rain and melting snow causes floods leaving more than 200 dead
28th Mar 05 - Magnitude 8.7 earthquake in Sumatra kills another 1313 after having suffered the Indian Ocen Tsunami only months earlier
June 05 - Widespread flooding throughout China leaves more tha 600 dead and countless others homeless
13th July 05 - 3 train crashes in Ghotki, India leaves 128 dead
14th Aug 05 - Helios Airways Flight 522, a Boeing 737, en route from Cyprus to Athens, crashed into a mountain killing all 121 on board
16th Aug 05 - West Caribbean Airways flight en route from Panama to Martinique, crashed in remote western Venezuela, killing all 160 on board
29th Aug 05 - Hurricane Katrina, one of the most powerful and most devastatingin recent times, hits Florida and Mississippi leaving utter destruction in its wake and claiming 1323 lived in the process.
31st Aug 05 - Rumours of a suicide bomber causes a stampede in which 950pilgrims lost their lives
1st Sept 05 - Typhoon Talim hits China leaving 129 people dead
5th Sep 05 - Boeing 737 crashes on takeoff in Medan, Indonesia killing 149, 47 of which were on the ground
24th Sep 05 - Hurricane Rita, just as powerful as Katrina, hits Florida, Louisiana and Texas nut doesn't claim as many lives though recovery operations from Katrina was severly hampered
1st Oct 05 - Hurricane Stan leaves behind total devastation claiming 2000 lives and thousands more missing in Central America.
2nd Oct 05 - A magnitude 7.6 earthquake killed more that 80,000, mostly women, children and the elderly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Many towns and remote villages in the mountaineous region were flattened leaving 4 million homless facing the looming winter
22nd Oct 05 - Nigerian Bellview Airlines Boeing 737 enroute to Abuja crashed in Lagos killing all 117 aboard
27th Nov 05 - Explosion at the Dongfeng Coal Mine in China killed 171
6th Dec 05 - An Iranian military C130 carrying 94 ppl crashed into an apartment building while attempting an emergency landing in Tehran killing 115, the other 21 was from the building.
10th Dec 05 - A Nigerian Sosoliso Airlines plane carrying 110 crashed during landing in bad weather, killing 107
We had a record-breaking year in terms of the number of tropical storms battering the Atlantic. 27 in total. Previous record was 21, way back in 1933. Of these 13 were hurricanes, also setting another record surpassing the 12 in 1969. 7 of the 13 were considered major hurricanes. 3 of those were Category 5 storms.
Scary isn't it? Well, I didn't include the thousands of lives extinguished in the the Iraqi insurgency, the suicide bombings in Amman, Bali and London, and the, considerably, minor tragedies occuring throughout the world.
Well, it was a roller coaster ride for all of us. Those in Europe and US watched in disbelief the carnage left behind by all the earthquakes and not forgetting the one which introduced the word tsunami to almost 3/4 of the ignorant world, while being battered themselves with the hurricanes and bombings. Most of us in Asia are still trying to get a grip with all that's happened around us, from the earthquakes in Sumatra to the ones hitting Iran and Pakistan. Overwhelming? Definitely.
What scares me the most is not the possibilty of Singapore being hit by a tsunami or earthquake or suicide bombers but rather the attitude of some of my fellow Singaporeans who seem to think that events such as these around the world have no impact on their lives while going about their daily routine as if nothing had ever happened.
God, help us if it ever comes to that.
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