Resumo de Just 5 Days To A New Year

Tsunami (26th December 2004)- Indelible Waves

The world finally bids goodbye to the year 2005. I remember somebody said that the best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. So soothing is the statement!

As the day dawns, bathing in the sunlight of another contemplative year, nobody knows what treasure it has in store. Good or bad!

Ushering the world in yet another period, time has again proved that it is at the helm of all human and natural affairs. But as the wheel of the inevitable time spins on, do we ever pause to reflect on what we lost and remember those who could not make it to see the light of this beautiful year? For most of us the day of 26 December 2004 was just another addition to our daily life, brushing off the hang over of Christmas revelry, but not including those hapless ones who were swept away by the mammoth tides of the ocean. Very few knew that the Japanese geographical expression ?tsunami? could swim all its way from our text books to flood our world with destruction and desolation.

The world's most powerful earthquake in more than 40 years struck deep under the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004 triggering massive tsunamis that obliterated cities, seaside communities and holiday resorts, killing tens of thousands of people in a dozen countries. The inestimable death toll and countless missing, presumably dead , paints the day of 26th December 2004 as one of the blackest day in the history of mankind, bracketing countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Thailand, Somalia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Tanzania, Seychelles, Bangladesh and Kenya. As of February 22, 2005, government agencies and the United Nations said the death toll stood at 169,752 with 127,294 people listed as missing.

As we commemorate today, the gloomy hours of that uncalled day, can we ever size up to really understand the onslaught of miserable cries that echoes even today? The kiths and kins, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers who have perished have left behind indelible scars on the minds of their loved ones. Tsunamis have gone but the land is still wet with tears of many a mother who was helpless in front of the Mother Nature. Her losses and agonies of the time gone by are incalculable by any means. Many stories are told and heard but they are still the stories of books or newspapers who could make it to the headlines but could not make it in our hearts. We just heard and read them but did we ever, humanly, pause for those desperate deaths and miserable lives? How fortunate are we to see the years unfold after the tragedy!

World Agencies moved forward with reconstruction and recovery, efforts went under way to maintain donations and relief, rehabilitate people and children, establish long-term strategies and develop early-warning systems so that another disaster may be avoided. World lent a helping hand to the victims of the tragedy, families were compensated for their losses. Though these measures were very important and have gone a long way in providing immediate relief. However, such disasters do not break people only physically but also mentally. A major challenge is to address this particular aspect and tap the hearts of those countless children who have lost their shelters of hopes. Perhaps only a deep self-search within ourselves can show us the various ways by which we can help them. If the effects of the tsunami were far-reaching, our efforts should also be proportionate to it.

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