Baru saja rekan saya, Irena Krasnicka, dari Czech
Republic, menelpon dan menyatakan kesedihannya setelah
mengikuti perkembangan bencana tsunami di Aceh. Saya
sampaikan terima kasih, setelah dia mengatakan bahwa
ia ikut menyumbang sekedarnya bersama orang Czeko
lainnya. Kebetulan bulan Februari yad dia akan pergi
ke Jakarta dan Jogja untuk urusan pekerjaan dia.
Salam,
RM
---------------------------------------
Images of 2004... and 2005
Farzana Contractor
(Afternoon)
Wednesday, January 05, 2005 12:30:18 IST
There is nothing like a New Year, really. Not when you
consider how the aftermath of the Tsunami disaster
just goes on extending from one day to another, one
year to the next.
Yes, the mood is somber and there are images which
have come forth which we will never be able to wipe
out from memory. The diary picture of Afternoon, on
the last day of the year was so, so, so sad. The
distraught old man, sitting looking down, head in
hand... what were his thoughts? So hapless, a life
beyond tears? Such sadness.
But on the other hand, the other side of it. The nice
stories. Ones which exemplify human courage, show
animal loyalty, the good side of human nature, the
generosity of the world.
For me, the nicest image was one that showed a
Buddhist monk freeing birds from a cage - symbolising
the freeing of entrapped spirits of those dead; deaths
that were violent and too quick, yet painful.
Then there was the series of pictures. The Swedish
mother in a bikini, running daringly and purposefully
into the sea and the fury of the Tsunami. She had to
save her children who were snorkeling. Phew! Only a
mother could do that. To think all of the five in the
family are back in their homeland safe and sound after
being tossed around in the waves! Destiny.
And how about the family dog that dragged his
seven-year-old master out of danger, up a hill.
Imagine the joy of the mother who thought him dead
since she had had to let go of his hand so she could
escape with two younger ones in two arms!
Then there were the eight elephants on a Thai beach
trumpeting in panic even as the earth was ripping open
on a seabed, oceans away. These were the 'joy-ride'
jumbos who couldn't be pacified all morning and who
ran away, to a nearby hill, berserk, a full hour
before the tidal waves hit the shore. All the tourists
on their backs were saved!
Well, and then there is the whole world getting
together in a common cause: to help the survivors put
their broken lives together again. Presidents urging
America to contribute generously, a cricket benefit
match in Australia, tennis auctions, charity music
shows, giving up-a-day's salary and what not.
But all this is because feelings are in 'flow' now.
It's when the ebb sets in, that genuine help and
sincere effort will be needed. And the need will not
be finance as much as to be there and do what young
Vivek Oberoi is doing today. Go there three months
from now, six months later and a year or two after
that too and help those affected find their place in
the sun. In another three weeks it will be four years
since the Bhuj earthquake and you know what, most of
us have forgotten the victims, but they are still
suffering.
Farzana Contractor is the CEO of this newspaperand the
editor of UpperCrust.
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