Tuesday, December 28, 2004
The South Asian calamity gives us pause for thought
As the international community mobilises to provide aid for the millions in South Asia whose homes, livelihoods and families have been devastated by the tidal wave that struck on Boxing Day, I simply want to reflect on two things:
First, how lucky we are to live in a country not under constant threat of catastophic floods, or on the edge of earthquake-causing tectonic plates, or beneath an active volcano, or where we need to worry about drought-causing heatwaves.
We all moan about our damp climate - and love to travel to places like those hit so hard by this latest natural disaster - and of course 'leaves on the line' will continue to be the butt of jokes and rail delays. But basically, we are incredibly fortunate to live on this island, where the gulf stream provides a far warmer climate than other countries on our latitude wrap-up against.
My second comment relates specifically to the tidal wave. It took three hours between the quake under the Indian Ocean occurring and the consequential devastating waves reaching Sri Lanka and India. It isn't possible - yet (and it may never be so) - to predict where and when quakes occur and for Indonesia and Malaysia, not far from the epicentre, little warning could have been given. But there were three hours to warn and at least institute the most basic defences for the more distant countries. I hear that seismologists who recorded the 9 richter earthquake "didn't know who to call". That's something that must never happen again.
Natural disasters on the scale just experienced are so rare and so overwhelming that nothing can be done to prevent them. We must always balance the rarity of disasters of this scale against other priorities within these developing nations. Simply put, investing in growing their economies and lifting their citizens out of poverty may rank higher than diverting their precious resources to avert one-in-a-thousand-year catastrophes like this. But once South Asia is back on its feet, the international community must work to provide them - and other vulnerable areas - with as much of an early-warning system as our cutting-edge technology can provide.
Sadiq
First, how lucky we are to live in a country not under constant threat of catastophic floods, or on the edge of earthquake-causing tectonic plates, or beneath an active volcano, or where we need to worry about drought-causing heatwaves.
We all moan about our damp climate - and love to travel to places like those hit so hard by this latest natural disaster - and of course 'leaves on the line' will continue to be the butt of jokes and rail delays. But basically, we are incredibly fortunate to live on this island, where the gulf stream provides a far warmer climate than other countries on our latitude wrap-up against.
My second comment relates specifically to the tidal wave. It took three hours between the quake under the Indian Ocean occurring and the consequential devastating waves reaching Sri Lanka and India. It isn't possible - yet (and it may never be so) - to predict where and when quakes occur and for Indonesia and Malaysia, not far from the epicentre, little warning could have been given. But there were three hours to warn and at least institute the most basic defences for the more distant countries. I hear that seismologists who recorded the 9 richter earthquake "didn't know who to call". That's something that must never happen again.
Natural disasters on the scale just experienced are so rare and so overwhelming that nothing can be done to prevent them. We must always balance the rarity of disasters of this scale against other priorities within these developing nations. Simply put, investing in growing their economies and lifting their citizens out of poverty may rank higher than diverting their precious resources to avert one-in-a-thousand-year catastrophes like this. But once South Asia is back on its feet, the international community must work to provide them - and other vulnerable areas - with as much of an early-warning system as our cutting-edge technology can provide.
Sadiq
