...life still goes on, albeit with lots of difficulty...
i am of course referring to the dec 26 tsunamis of last year...what was supposed to be the mellow aftermath of a celebratory christmas was turned on its head by that 1 devastating earthquake that triggering off the catastrophic tsunamis that hit aceh, the andaman islands, thailand, malaysia, india, sri lanka and the maldives...so many lives lost on that black black day...
more than 230,000 people died or are missing and more than 1.8 million people were displaced by dec 26 tsunami.
a year after the disaster, the rebuilding of homes in the devastated zones is slowly moving ahead but there is still a huge amount of work to be done.
vast numbers of displaced people are still camped out in tents and according to aid organisation oxfam, only around one-fifth of the homeless will be in permanent homes.
in indonesia's aceh province, by the end of 2005 around one-quarter of the people in need will be in new permanent homes and in sri lanka, some 5,000 out of 78,000 homes will have been completed.
nevertheless, the impact of the tsunami will continue to be felt for many years.
meanwhile, Indian Ocean nations are rapidly upgrading tsunami detection systems and plan to put in place a deep-sea sensor network so those at risk can be warned faster. according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), 23 nations in the Indian Ocean rim will have a "modern" tsunami detection network by June 2006.
we can only hope that it never happens again but only time will tell...the indonesian ring of fire still burns hot and unpredictably...we will never know for sure when the next big one will happen and whether singapore might be one of the nations affected...
therefore as christmas comes around again, i hope we can all take some time to remember the horrific events of last dec 26 and in the midst of our festivities, spare a minute's silence in remembrance of the victims...
*sombre mood*
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