Thursday, December 30, 2004

Tsunami Disaster

When I first heard the news about the tragedy on Monday morning, tears welled up in my eyes as what happened when I first heard the news of 911 on the radio in the year 2001. Over the next few days, my heart sank as the death toll rises. My holiday mood is dampened each time the figure climbs. The Grim Reaper has been keeping himself busy.

It is not suprising to hear people from all walks of life talking about it in office, restaurants, pubs, schools, cafes and what-have-yous. Therefore, when the topic came up during my lunch break today, I was seeing red when I heard this most insensitive comment on the matter from a numbskull, "People died. So what?". He isn't joking either.

My immediate reaction was to put down my chopsticks, give him the famous Scorpion death stare and as calmly as I can, said, "Well, that's easy for you to say!!! None of your loved ones are involved in the tragedy!!! If your family and friends are now dead or lying with some serious injuries in the hospital beds from the tsunami tragedy then you wouldn't be saying 'So what?' anymore!!!"

The air was still as I waited for a response. Silence. My boyfriend sensing the tension in the air rubbed my arm and tried to diffuse the situation with some kind words. Now what irks me about people like the useless sack of wine I call a colleague is that they simply shoots off without thinking. Their little, tiny, itsy-bitsy grey matter tells them that making such remarks makes them appear detached and cool about the whole situation. Well, I got news for you mister, it just slammed a big L on your forehead.

Same goes for the other puny-brained masses who blindly forward emails with pictures and video recordings of the tragedy. Instead of wasting bandwidth and time, why don't you maggots make good use of those fingers and clicked some money into the disaster funds set up all over the world now? For those of you in Malaysia, you can help through various means. Divert your attention here from the porn and stupid jokes in your inbox for a while to help when it really matters.

I know I've done my part. Have you?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

these words came to me... a few days ago. before i knew of him being missing in the sea. this is one for you my fren:

"may peace light up their soul
on their journey which was never told
let the water carry their soul
on our endless grief and sorrow."

kktan
28/12/2004

Jeryc said...

Sus..

I shared the same sentiment with your colleagues. People died now and then. Infact, people die every minutes or so. So where the grim then? It is best we learn from these victims and live life to the fullest rather than wallow in the fact that they died in the most unfortunate event.

You seee, this disaster has teach us one thing. That is, to look at the beautiful side of life. Look at your loved one, look at your family, it also teach us to take a 2nd glance at things we sometimes find minute...

My heart goes out to the victims and survivors too. We do what we can to elevate their situations.