Widespread Mayhem for REAL

Today felt so surreal. News about massive tsunamis attacking the coasts of neighbouring countries simply seemed so far-fetched. Figures were buzzing over the radio like a ticker-tape. Hollywood has indeed smudged the line between fiction & reality. While the newscaster was churning out the dishes of information, all i could picture in my head was a carousel of scenes from "Deep Impact"--massive seismic waves devouring humans & buildings. The thought of it though was chilling & frightening.

A few more kilometres down the expressway saw us getting caught in a jam. How eventful. After half an hour of turmoil, we got to glimpse the incident site. Though much of it had been cleaned up, it was pretty obvious that a serious road accident had occurred. What seemed to be like a motorcycle had been reduced to scraps with bits of shattered glass spilled across the road. There were also a few cars lined along the road shoulder; damaged. I didnt know if it was the long bumpy ride along the malaysia highway or the super oily keropoks or the crazy-ass events but i could almost taste puke.

Come to think about it, it was only yesterday that people all over the world were celebrating xmas happily. All it took was a rumble beneath the sea, a shake-up of massive waves and 4000 people perished. That is excluding the escalating numbers of missing & injured people. Life is so fragile & unpredicatable. Unprecedented events like these just reiterates how easily man can be wiped out. What is even more ludicruous is that somewhere in the other hemisphere, people are welding guns & bombs to annihilate one another. Yeah, perhaps the global population is increasing and we need a few more agents to check the population's growth. Just like how crows & cats are being culled. Oh yah, there's no higher physical life form on earth besides humans so we have to do it ourselves. DIY crudely.

Such madness. I still cant believe that such a freaky phenomenon can happen. 8.9 on the richter scale...That will definitely make it into the Guiness Book World of Record. Im still very puzzled as to why there were no warnings. Arent there geological stations to detect unusual seismic activites? Arent there meterological stations to warn about oncoming tsunamis?

As we passed through the customs across the causeway, i cant help but feel how safe Singapore is. No natural disasters. Though Singapore is small on the map, we are sheltered and safe. Vulnerability versus protection. The only vulnerability Singapore faces is man-made. We may not experience snow. No beautiful mountains, valleys & rivers. In exchange, we get a dull, boring but safe country that we always feel glad about whenever we come home from overseas.