Anybody else feeling inappropriately ho-hum about the tsunami?
 

I felt bad when the news broke. Now I don’t feel so bad. I feel in awe of nature more than anything else. What the Hell is wrong with me? I mean this is as devastating as a nuclear attack. The scale of the disaster is tremendous.

But I just don’t feel it.

When Rwanda lost something like 300,000 people in a matter of weeks, I was deeply affected. Reading the paper one morning, I noticed tears hitting the page. I was quietly weeping.

During the madness in Bosnia I wept. Actually, I full-on cried. I was reading yet another story about the pointless killing, and how families had funerals at night to try to avoid snipers. There was a sidebar about a couple of kids getting shot while the family was burying their brother, and I just fucking lost it.

But this thing doesn’t resonate. I guess man’s cruelty get me. But when Mother Nature does it, deep down inside I know she’s just thinning the herd.

Same, but I don't feel my reaction to this natural catastrophe is inappropriate at all.

I've never felt deeply emotional about any large event.. the tsunami, 9/11, anything.

I mean, it's unfortunate and all, but I'm never jolted by it.

I had to put my chinchilla to sleep last week and I was pretty saddened by that, though, so it's not like I'm void of emotion.

I was more shocked than anything. I had to state the deathcount and a personal statement in my MSN name to reference the event.
There's nothing you could have done really, no force could have stopped this.

I was also shocked at first. A hundred thousand dead people is no joke. But now it's more of a "oh, too bad for them"

For myself, things like this are much easier to accept when they aren't political in nature, or otherwise man-made. I have basic human sympathy for the loss of life and that's about it.

Mankind is cruel by and large on its own.

Nature is even worse.

Once you keep the TV on and keep watching it's numbing and desensitizing. It's just a number that keeps on getting larger, but it's still just a number.
I posted this earlier...

Perhaps because it's abstract.

If you really think about no shelter, no food, no water, loss of loved ones, loss of property, loss of bank, etc., it's horrendous.

Just when you think mankind has become master of our own destiny, mother nature reminds us who is really in control. The force release was the equivlent to one million Hiroshima size nuclear weapons. This event has really reminded me how quickly mother nature can revoke your life. Overall, it does seem a little surreal, coming right after Christmas.

I have felt the same disconnected feeling concerning this catastrophy. I think my feelings are affected by a couple things.

1. The absolute amoral cause of this. Not political or caused by mankind in any way.
2. The near completely helplessness of myself with regards to this beyond giving money to the Red Cross.
3. The face that this almost seems surreal. Because it's so far removed I almost subconsciously feel like it's just another movie.
4. I've sought outscientific information with regards to this to explain why alert systems weren't available, how the tetonics actually functioned, etc. and found very little. Making it seem even more unreal. It's all about the people and the money.
5. There is so much hoopula with regards to the money that the 'United States' is giving as well as how much other countries are contributing that it seems almost like a race to see who can be the biggest giver. The 'competition' with regards to the help offered seems ridiculous and disgusting. I'm not saying the people over there won't benefit from it all - perhaps they will moreso because some competition could be good in raising the amounts given. Yet I feel almost ashamed of my country showing off in this way.

When I woke up this morning, I had no foresight that I may die today, just like those 100,000+ probably had no idea. Just seeing this thing happen the way it did makes me realize my sense of mortality a little bit more. More of a somber feeling than anything truly shocking.

I think it is just mind numbing. Plus, it's someplace else and you don't know any of these people. Guess for me it just doesn't seem real - or relevent - or that there is anything I can do about what's already happened.

Also, I understand we (the US) is sending $35 billion cash plus whatever else support we provide, so my charity work is done on this one. I suppose we should send money to these people than the people in the US below the poverty level and especially the kids in this group that have no choice regarding their current lot in life. Or the people with no medical coverage....I could go on. Guess I wish we would take care of our own and then toss some around the world.

152,000 Dead 510,000 Injured

Maybe it's because its over a wide range,with 9/11 you could see it,it was in one place at one time.But this is a mass wipe of large area.

Seeing the bodies of dead children lined up, row upon row, with mothers grieving over them, gets me more than seeing the bodies of adults. It probably shouldn't...but it does, nonetheless. It could be from seeing a dead child, no older than my own two year old son. I know that he got extra hugs that night, and I protested a little less about dragging my stiff joints down on the floor to play toys with him.
Insofar as feeling anything else...I suppose disbelief comes to mind. The death toll is over 100,000, now What the hell is that? Helplessness also comes to mind. Aside from donating cash to the Red Cross, there is not a damn thing that I can do about it.

In the fight between Man and Mother Nature; Nature will always win.

This was indeed a horrible thing to happen. If you don't feel a lot of emotion, you will when/if this ever happens to your area.

I have friends in Thailand, so I am worried about them.

Generally these kinds of things don't bother me that much, but I certainly feel sympathy to those having to go through it. It probably is because it is so far away, that there is no "real" effect on my personal life. This time its a little different because I have a friend living in Indonesia that nobody has heard from yet.

I have no feelings about it at all. It's just numbers that pop up on the tv every 10 minutes. For me, it's like looking into a sports stadium and wondering what the final score is going to be in the tsunami game.

what I'm hearing from others who are far removed from this sounds very conceptual - even though it is expressed as sentiment. it's like thinking about this thing and the irrationality and horror of it - but I do not hear actual feelings coming through the voiced emotion. we appear to have a sense that we "should" feel deeply about this and therefore some of us say we do.

of course, some of us are more "sensitive" than others, I suppose.

Aside from sadness, I can't help but feeling a bit pissed at the frequency they add/update the numbers of death.
SURE news is good, and SURE people should be made aware that this is HUGE and they should be sensitized about it so they are more willing to help, but I can't help but cringe everytime I hear the death count... it looks like it became a death-o-meter... too morbid for me.
I guess I don't wanna face the truth :-/

I read 35 million, not billion, although that number is bound to rise.

I'll admit that watching the death toll number constantly tick up on tv is somewhat desensitizing. What drives home the horror to me are the individual stories that are beginning to trickle out of the area, stories of people being swept away to their deaths in front of their loved ones eyes.

Human tragedy is human tragedy, whether it is inflicted by another group of human beings (Bosnia), or by some natural force (tsunami.) The fact that a natural force caused 100,000+ deaths doesn't make it an easier pill for me to swallow than if it was another genocidal massacre. I guess people have different types of coping mechanisms in these types of situations, none necessarily better than any other.

Some people may say "Ho Hum- I just don't feel it". I say, "From now on, screw Mother Nature, screw the caribou, screw the 3-Toed Purple Plumed Hoot Owl. From now on....Plunder! Plunder! Plunder! Drill for oil in the pristine, untouched corners of Alaska! Deplete the ozone layer! Dump your used motor oil down the gutter instead of taking it to a proper disposal facility! Take that Mother Nature! You'll pay.....oh yes you'll pay dearly."

She'll come around, and when she does, well...as Mr. Burns once said, "Oooh, so Mother Nature needs a favor?! Well maybe she should have thought of that when she was besetting us with droughts and floods and poison monkeys! Nature started the fight for survival, and now she wants to quit because she's losing. Well I say, hard cheese."

She may have won the battle this time, but not the war!

I simply don't know what to feel. I'm expected to feel sad, but I don't know anyone who is affected by this. My life goes on...

I've been looking for avenues through which to be amazed. I'm trying to find personal accounts of tragedy and video of the event. I'm trying to get a little more inside.

Exactly. If the tsunami were to hit the US and kill 100,000 people I bet we would all care a little bit more. When the destruction is thousands of miles away it doesn't affect us at all.

-Lasereth

It has deeply saddened me; the first night that I heard about it I sat in my sons room and watched him while he slept and thought of all the children who were orphaned that day, how many died in absolute terror, and how many parents would grieve over the loss of a child. It has made me feel helpless; all I can really do is donate money, which I have no problem doing, but throwing money at the problem doesn't seem like enough. I don't watch TV, so maybe I haven't become desensitized because of the constant updates and such.

i don't feel anything about this at all. i tried...but nothing came. i mean i try to sympathize with/for the victims, but for some reason i just can't. all i can manage to say is 'sorry for you' and 'stuff happens.'

As a parent, we have a very deep and basic instinct to protect our children. I know I would give my life to save my children and when I see an event like this it reminds me how vunerable I am to chance. When I see a parent look for the there dead children, I think, what if that were me. I guess being a father, I have the hunter protector instinct.

No. I do not feel ho-hum.

This continues to affect me deeply.

Were there more that I could do, over the few hundred dollars I've already donated, I wouldn't blink.

Mr Mephisto

I don't seem moved by this at all. Perhaps it's because, if the even doesn't directly effect me, it's hard for it to affect me at all. Sept. 11, Bosnia, Tokyo earthquake, even the California earthquake in the 90's...none of that moved me at all.

Any number of people can leave your life at any moment. The friend from school that you knew for your whole life, well, they go off to college. You never see them again. The guy down the hall from you that you became friends with, well, he gets transferred across the country. No more communication. People disappear from our lives every day...and yet we don't often act as if they were dead, even though the amount of contact with them is equal.

Mass diasters, perhaps, seem less painful than individual events. There was a really bad car crash right outside my house on Christmas eve; family died...that was moving. 100,000 people dead across the world? I'm sorry, I just can't feel it.

I wish the best for all the families that were hurt by this, but I'm just happy that it hasn't happened here.

Fair enough. At least you and other posters are being honest and not merely feigning sympathy just for the hell of it. This comment isn't necessarily directed to you, but to everyone who has expressed similar sentiments....perhaps you wouldn't be so apathetic about this if you lived near, or you had lost friends, relatives, or coworkers in some of the examples you quoted earlier. That's too bad, I hope you never do experience such a loss. Many of us have.

I just can't understand the "I don't care, it's not me" attitude.

I am the exact opposite. I am numb to the carnage that man can do to man... I am outraged but emotionally numb (if that makes sense).

However, this tragedy effected me because of the randomness of it all.

It could happen to anyone anytime. You are chilling on the beach with your family one minute and the next your children are being washed out to sea.

The Earth just doesn't give a shit and there's nothing you can do about it.

Exactly. And I spend maybe two hours per week at the most watching TV, yet I have still been desensitized to these kinds of things anyway (probably due video games or something, who knows)

Ya know, I really feel bad about not feeling bad. Honest, I do. Perhaps our society has gone too far into the 'survival of the fittest' Darwinian attitude these days. I mean, look at all the random violence on the news each night. We sit and watch it while eating dinner, shrug and say "that's too bad" or "gee, isn't that terrible?"...but we can't do anything about it. The next day, more of the same. Why should we feel worse about this? Because lots and lots of people died at once? Many of those same people might have died over the course of the year, two years, five years...but do we hear about it? Of course not. It's the scale of this matter that makes it international news.

What I'm saying is, yes, it is a sad state that we really can't feel emotion. I emphesize with those who have lost people. I'm very glad that I'm not personally hurt. I can only hope that those in the tsunami-destroyed areas get back on their feet without much trouble.

Although I feel terrible about this situation, I feel more saddened than angry, whereas, violence amongst each other leaves me not only saddened, but furious as well. I can accept this as an outside force that we had no control over (although heart wrenching nevertheless). It is the senseless violence we commit amongst our own kind that is avoidable and unnecessary , mother nature on the other hand will not cease to exist, and is beyond control.

It is events like this that make us realize how insignificant we really are. We can kill each other and commit acts of violence towards our own kind until we end up removing our very own existence, but we fail to realize we can all be obliterated within minutes due to the wrath of nature. Simply put, we are nothing in this vast universe. In the billions of years the Earth has existed, we have been around for only a fraction of time; really, we are a mere glitch, which makes it all the more senseless to destroy each other.

I truly hope it doesn't take a giant rock headed for earth to make us realize that we should come together and live in peace. It shouldn't be tragedies alone that make us come together for a couple days until we all forget and move on to our typical violence and hatred.

If we can not come to love one another, I look forward to that asteroid, and I expect it.

I don't really feel any type of deep loss or depression or anything horrible over the tsunami either...but I do sort of gain a new perspective on things from hearing the story. As others have said, thinking about how so many people could die at once from one random event in nature is kind of scary. It makes you realize how small you are...how unpredictable things can be...

The fact that this was a tourist area somehow makes it even more amazing to me. When I think about all the people who thought they'd take a nice vacation and lost everything - loved ones, all their belongings...literally everything...then i do start to feel something.
Because it wasn't even just people living their day-to-day lives. This was, for many, supposed to be a nice break from everyday life.
And instead, a tsunami's what they got.

But you can't (or at least I can't) let events millions of miles away from you touch you so much that they effect your own day-to-day life. People are dying and mourning all over the world but for me, life goes on. Even for the mourners, life goes on. If I let every single tragedy I heard about each day affect me, I would never be happy.

As for people saying that the US should "support it's own before supporting people miles away"...I REALLY don't agree. This was a tourist area where many Americans visit each year, first of all. I'm sure there were some Americans there at the time. Second of all, if you want to talk about people who have no choice in their place in life, the people who got hit by that tsunami are it. Do you think they wanted to be hit by a tsunami? Hell no! They were just trying to enjoy a nice vacation. At least the people in the US have a chance at free education and class mobility so that they CAN attain all those things that you seem to think our govt should be giving to THEM instead of to people dying in a natural disaster miles away from us.
I think the people dying NOW are in more immediate need of the money than many of those people who don't have free health care.

Oh, and I really hope you were joking RangerDick.

For myself, and I'm sure a lot of other people, when something goes wrong, I try and find the blame. In this case, there's really no one to point the fingers at except Mother Nature, and it's not as if it's going to go "Oh, I'm sorry about that. How bought I cancel a tornado or two to make you feel better?" I kind of see it as a part of life, and part of the evolution of our planet. Yes, it's sad that people were lost, but no one person has better odds of survival from day to day than anyone else.

this was my train of thought:

-wow, a tsunami
-holy shit, over 150,000 dead, this is one of the worst tragedies ever
-wait a second, World War II killed over 60,000,000

now dont get me wrong, im not trying to take away from the tragedy in any way, or the people that were lost in it. my heart goes out to all of them and their families. but we have to worry about ourselves alot more than we have to worry about nature. many many more people have died from starvation and civil wars in the same level of third world countries, and did receive anywhere near this amount of pity. im not saying these people don't deserve it, im saying that regrettably, there are many other people who deserve it too but dont receive it.

I suspect you're allowed to feel however the hell you want. I think it sucks, but I'm not going to wail and gnash my teeth over it.

I have spent a lot of time on the Gulf of Mexico. Walking on the beach or just standing there looking out to the gulf, I am and always have been mesmerized by the awesome power of Mother Nature. When at one moment you can watch children laughing and playing in the tide, and in the next moment see them violently washed away to their death you try to rationalize the reason for such an event. But there is no reason. There is nothing to comprehend. You just have to accept such tragedy and go on with your daily routine with the awareness that your life and the lives of others can be ended just like that. Of course we can drive defensively, look both ways before crossing the street, and wash our hands frequently, but there is no way to prepare for or be more aware in order to prevent such an event as a tsunami from taking our lives.

Had an acquaintance tell me he thought the tsunami was, "awesome" today. I didn't kill him. Is that ho-hum?

I too was brought to tears over those man made horrors. I do not feel quite as bad when it is nature. It is so uncontrollable...

When man kills man it hurts me more then when nature kills man.

eyeronic, it was awesome, in the way that it is so huge and powerful it's hard to come to terms with. And therein lies the problem. We aren't feeling that depressed over it because none of us have ever seen such a huge wave leaving devestation. We've seen earthquakes level buildings on the news, we've seen fires burn houses down in real life. All the news footage I have seen of the wave involved it washing a couple of people off a pier, that's not how 80,000 people died... There's very little actual coverage of the event and that is what is stopping us from looking at numbers and relating them to people being killed. September 11th, we were shown images of people jumping to save themselves from being burnt to death, that harrowing image has stuck with me since.

I don't feel sad as this doesn't strike a cord with me. It's death, death is a function of life, invariably everything living on this planet will die, their's came before ours due to the environment, that's not sad, it's 'shit' as in 'shit happens', the environment killed those people. On matters such as this what gets me is personal loss and any glaring examples of the terrible failings of man.

nature IS awesome...for some strange reason when stuff like this happens I always think of the old butter commercials "Its not nice to fool mother nature" ...I know that sounds dumb but still....

I feel sad for all those people...the ones who live there and have nothing left...the ones that were visiting and have to go thru the hassels of getting new passports to get back home and more than likely lost all the possessions they had with them at the time...but...

I cry over man made deaths....not ones caused by nature...I think feeling helpless over natural disatures outweighs the "sad" emotion because there simply is nothing that can be done. In the states we get warnings (for DAYS) about hurricanes....I really think they need to do something about a warning system...I realize a tsunami doesnt grow like a hurricane but hell I read they didnt even know about the earthquake which caused the tsunami..I find that incredible

actually, there is a system of buoys in the pacific ocean (and i think a couple in the indian maybe) that lets them know a tsunami is coming. problem is, only developed east asian countries participate, and there really was no way or infrastructure for them to reach the governments of countries in danger and spread the word. forget where i heard that

The term "inappropriate" in this context validates the politically correct notion that we should advertise ourselves as sensitive, feeling people. I don't see a neutral response to this event as being inappropriate. I do, however, wonder how it is totally healthy to dwell on the experience of thousands of people whose lives have very little bearing on our own - especially when experienced via news reports. Actually, I have some concern for the "sensitive" ones among us. Living so in this world must be quite a burden for them.

This is how I feel: better them than me.

My mind says, "Holy shit that is totally fucking unreal and amazing!" But my heart says, "Meh."

There have been days when I've been surfing waves so big that I feel like the most insignificant speck in the ocean. It's kinda hard to describe the feeling you get when you see a 15 ft wave break in front of you and you're paddling through the flats.. despair I guess would be a good word. And that's how I feel in the ocean. Where I know what to do and have some measure of control.

But when I imagine a 15 ft wave coming and I'm standing on dry land...whew. There's absolutely nothing you can do as the power of the ocean plucks your insignificant little body off the ground and sucks you up.

At first, when it was still a few thousand, I head on the news that two thirds of the population of some villages were washed away and killed. At first, I didn't really think about it. A few minutes later I started thinking about how painful it was to lose my father, and how it would feel to have the same happen to my brother and my mother. At that point I had to change the channel to distract myself. Fortunately, IHRA drag racing was on, and I quickly returned to my typical state of apathetic numbness.

All we can do now is to clean up the mess and work on a way to warn people more quickly in the future. Even basic things like teaching people to run to higher ground if the ground shakes or the ocean recedes rapidly would have saved lives.

Being a big fan of Indonesian coffees, in particular that from the isle of Sumatra, one of the hardest hit islands, I am deeply concerned about the people there, and their ability to continue to produce coffee.

How can so many people feel so little?

not ho-hum, just in denial that something with that magnitude of aftermath has actually happened. It's hard to actually fathom if you are not there, it does sadden me to see the numbers grow, but I won't watch the news for the reason that it is so depressing. I feel for everyone there and my thougths are with those who passed. 9-11 my ass, there's over a 100,000 number difference here and this is mother nature, not terrorism. Nature is more powerful than any human.

Actually, it was "preventable", many countries, us inlcuded already knew about it and had 3+ hours warning. We just didn't bother to pick up the phone and call them. Even a phone call would have saved some of them. Buy hey, who cares about a bunch of poor brown people. I mean look, no one here gives a shit about them anyways...

Being "sensitive" is not a bad thing like so many here think it is. It's called being human, a big part of our essence of humanity. It is not weakness, or politically correct. There is nothing wrong with feeling sympathy, empathy or compassion to your fellow man. In fact, it is quite human and "correct" to do so.

I believe there IS[I] something wrong with you if you don't feel anything at all.

It means you have lost your humanity.

As I said, it must be difficult for the sensitive folks.

In any event, I wouldn't start impugning the humanity of those who don't wear their sensitivities on their sleeve or may have other more pressing concerns.

Carl Sagan once said, "Nature is neither benign nor malevolent; merely indifferent." My "sensitivity" seems to be more aligned with nature (something I know very well) than thousands of people I don't know at all.

I visited my folks over Christmas at their home in Florida that they're still rebuilding after a devastating hurricane season. The destruction is still horrific all over the beach, and I have much deeper feelings for their neighbors and friends who are still battling to find a place to live and bring some relief/closure to their situations.

great statement.

from the rich and famous to the poor... nature doesn't care.

I feel badly for those affected, but I think I am just having alot of trouble grasping the scope of the disaster. 150,000 ppl and rising is just so far beyond anything I can imagine.

I feel sorry for all the people who lost their lives, especially since the waves hit the most unprivileged parts of the world. Most of the victims were people who didn’t even realize that there was anything beyond the vast emptiness of the sea that surrounded them. And then, suddenly, everything was gone. I can’t say I’m crying for them, because, as Art said, the degrees of our emotional strength differ from person to person. But I’m shocked none the less.

I do, however, spend a lot of time watching images that come off the wire services, and I’m gaping at the scale of the whole tragedy. Pictures showing a beach with several hundred dead bodies mixed with debris, satellite pictures of none existent cities, wiped out in a few seconds, and so on. And sometimes I imagine some of the islands on the Pacific that don’t get mentioned as often in the news.

These islands housed several thousand people (most of them were indigenous, others worked at military installations and so on). Now they’re empty. You don’t hear about them, because there’s not a single living person left alive there. I imagine standing in the middle of that bare island, in a place where a few days ago there used to be a thriving town with lot’s of people milling around. And then I imagine the vast emptiness and the roar of the ocean and crashing waves on the now deserted, barren piece of land. It’s shocking.

Now, when I wake up in the morning, I realize how lucky I am to live in a developed country, without fear of either tsunamis or earthquakes plaguing my everyday live.

If you have a problem grasping the scale of the whole thing, here’s a link that’ll give you an idea how 115.000 people look like, more or less:

http://www.toddbinder.com/Toll.aspx

There is a lot of suffering and injustice in our world. We grow older, and become numb to the unfairness of the world, if only to protect ourselves from the possibility that it may happen to ourselves one day.

The people in south-east asia have lost everything. Lives of their family members, their homes, their jobs. The means they once had to survive in their land has been washed away. Rotting bodies are poisoning their water and there is a high chance there will be an epidemic of cholera or similar that will kill many who managed to escape the tsunami.

What if your home, your town, was completely destroyed? Your family dead, and there is no food to be found? The water you have to drink to survive is brown and certain to contain two or three diseases sure to make you very sick, and perhaps cripple you for life? Your neighbor bob, crying while pulling apart the rubble of his house, knowing his wife, kids, and sister are under there but doing so because he is hoping the the giant wave hadn't pulled them out to sea, never to be seen again? Can you imagine this scene happening to 5+ countries, to more than 5 million people? That's the estimate of how many have lost their homes.

Please guys, it may have happened far away, and was a natural occurance, but this is a disaster of gigantic proportions, and they are asking for our help. Even a small donation to the red cross could change someone's life in south-east asia. It could mean the difference from drinking fresh water instead of disease-ridden pond scum.

I worry about myself, if all that stuff were to happen to me, sure I'd feel terrible, but thats a hypothetical situation, it didnt happen to me. I'm just thankful for that

We feel we should respond to the SCALE of this terrible event, but i've just googled for world population info and quickly confirmed that worldwide 155,131 deaths occur every day. Each of those deaths can be regarded as a tragedy. My detachment through not being associated with anyone involved in the Tsunami disaster (to my knowledge) means that I feel that each of the individuals who are involved has experienced a tragedy no greater or lesser than that experienced by the loved ones of all the 155,131 souls lost on a daily basis.

Similarly, the loss of shelter and stability is not an uncommon event the world over.

As regards what we're obliged to do, who can say? Personally, I acknowledge the horrifying weight of this situation, but realistically I'm not capable of burdening myself with much more than that.

That visualization worked amazingly well. I have to admit though, the overall event hasn't exactly made me weep with despair. Seeing some pictures, reading specific stories, and things of that nature have elicited pretty strong emotional responses however.

Logically though, I was thinking "well yeah it's bad, but how many people die of starvation in sub-saharan Africa daily, and no one even thinks of it?"

A lot probably has to do with media over-saturation, fatigue and burnout. It'll probably get worse in the weeks to come, especially with money disbursements and the ensuing squabbles that will come.

It's like 9/11: at first there was shock and horror, but then, I was like oh who cares, get over it. I got so sick of it. I didn't know anyone who died in that "awesome" disaster and frankly, was annoyed that it screwed up traveling as we knew it forever. But I suppose we were all affected because were human and we have feelings. I remember how that Kenyan village made a donation of like 50 cows or something (which was equivalant to a lot for them) because they felt sorry for our loss in 9/11. That was pretty moving.

Then I got really irritated when the 'victims' were fighting over the money, police vs. firefighters, and the instant millionaires that came out of it later.

After awhile, 9/11 became just another ho-hum part of our collective history just like this will. Remember the Iranian earthquake last year? I didn't until I saw post in another thread (US Aid, I think) that showed all the world disasters of the last 100 years or so. Crazy stuff. We move on, we live.

One of the images that really struck me however, is the one of all those bodies washed up on the beach. Horrifying and illustrative of the magnitude of the whole thing.

I think one part of my emotional response, or lack thereof, is that I cannot relate this tragedy to anything in my own life. I cannot truely empathize.

If I hear of someone facing the possibility of a loved on in a coma for an undetermined amount of time I feel intense emotion. I've experienced the emotions caused by being in that position. I can sympathize with those affected by the tsunami. I cannot truely understand the situation an empathize.

Perhaps this is an illustration of the power of "walking in another's shoes". Unless you've experienced it you can NEVER understand the emotions of any situations.

I have a hard time beleiving that. Nature's disasters have always existed, and mankind has generally found a way to cope with them. There have always been fires, but before the "Mankind Civilization" we know today took hold, fires were a regular event and would only burn the underbrush and dead trees, and not grow into raging blazes that kill thousands. Native Americans could tell when hurricanes were coming, based on the activity of local animals, and knew to move inland, and deaths were always minimal. There was even a small town in Thailand on the coast, very secluded and ancient, where every single person survived. As soon as they felt the earthquake, they knew to move to the hills because a tsunami would ensue. The problem is when we see ourselves killing the forests, polluting the oceans, and developing wetlands and prairies, we think that we have conquered nature, and get a false sense of invincibility. Nowadays, instead of bending to nature, we expect it to bend to us, which just doesn't work. So, in conclusion, most of these natural disasters are really products of mankind anyways, or at least are greatly worsened by mankind.

point #2, which I've already made: even when it is as bad as this, mankind is worse

Let's assume that the death toll rises to approximately 200,000, which is a reasonable guess. A generally accepted lower-end estimation of the death toll of World War II is 55 million. The tsunami is about 1/275th as large, or 0.36% as large as World War II. Again, I'm not trying to take away from the disaster of it, just stating that it pales in comparison with the horrors mankind is capable of. And even without the sheer numbers, it is still less tragic. I would rather drown than have to pick which of my children is executed first, watch him die, then watch the other die, and then finally die myself (holocaust).

I can't say I am too troubled by it. Of course it sucks, and I feel bad for everyone affected, but that is nature for you. It has always happened, and will always happen, until nature fires it's final shot by way of the sun consuming the earth.

I see this example being brought up all the time. My gripe with it is that World War II lasted for six years, while the tsunami did its job in a few seconds. I don't think it's a valid comparison. The only comparable man made weapon, capable of delivering such destruction in such a short span of time, is an atomic or nuclear bomb. But I'd agree with the notion that humans are worse.

I don't know that I feel ho-hum about the tragedy, I just can't seem to generate any emotion at all. Its just too far away and abstract. I recognise that it is a terrible event that killed thousands of innocent people but I didn't know any of them. My life continues as before so its hard to truly feel anything. When I'm driving down the highway on the way to work and come across an accident scene I don't look. The accident didn't involve me so I have no interest in it (as long as help has arrived). I just want to continue on my way. The tsunami event is similar, I recognize it as a tragedy but honestly I don't lose sleep over it. I have to worry about my wife making it home alive every day. I have to worry about my grandmother with Alzheimers and how we can make her life as well as can be. I have my friends, family, job, and all the other things that make up my world to worry about and try to keep straight. It behooves me as a citizen of this planet to recognize tragedy when I see it and if possible help but I can't let tragedies outside my own sphere play too hard on my emotions. Life is long and each of us will have many tragic events to weather before we are done. While I sympathize, I'll save my tears for that which I cannot escape.

i understand what people are saying who aren't feeling very strongly about the tsunami, however, i kind of felt the opposite right after it had happened. i had gotten a text message alert on my cell about the earthquake, and i was like, "wow, holy shit." i went to look for information on the web, and on all the news sources, it seemed rather secondary. i turned the TV on, and none of the news channels were covering it. not CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or any of them. even the day after, it didn't even make the headline on the newspaper where i live. now seriously, i'm not putting anybody down for feeling "ho-hum," because that's what you feel, and there's nothing wrong with that, but when i saw how the news treated it at first, i was kind of pissed. i mean, thousands of people were reported dead already, and it didn't even make the breaking news on TV? i thought that was kind of sick.

Your news sources (CNN, MSNBC, Fox) aren't really news sources, they're more entertainment and therefore subject to the vagaries of a commercial market. (That's part of the problem)

So....if you want news, then go to NPR (web or radio) or the BBC.

I have to say i agree with the original post. We had a nationwide 3 minute silence today and i couldn't help but thinking it was too long. We have less time to remember every British soldier who has died in every conflict ever. This could not have been prevented (yea there might have been warnings but it would still have been a catastrophe) should we really dwindle on it? It is noones fault...will the innocents killed in Iraq get a nationwide moments thought if thats conflict ever ends?

Ugh, same here. Poland had a three minute silence at noon today, even though we only have a minute's silence every year for the thousands that died during the Warsaw uprising of '44. It's a nice gesture, but I have a problem believing anybody truly cared.

I plan to give as much as I can to help those people throughout the Indian Ocean but I do so puzzled at our government. We step up (despite what the UN's Jan Egeland says) and recognize the need for humanitarian action to the tune of $350 million. We immediately send in our resources (Lincoln battle group, Marines, USS Mercy) - stretching our exaperated military even more thinly. We act without hesitation to help people on the other side of the world. Yet we are the same people who are engaged in two futile military campaigns. We are the same people who are flailing like a child in the dark for one man, still at-large, who sucker-punched us almost four years ago.

So I give to the tsunami relief because <b>that</b> is an example of what Americans do. As I do so, however, I wonder how the same leaders who reach out to those devastated countries can be the same ones who have placed this nation in harm's way so carelessly.

From my own perspective, its just too huge for me to digest. The news can shout numbers of deaths at me all they want, but my brain simply can't process it. I feel sympathy for the people affected, but as some other's have said, my life goes on. A new semester starts, and my mind is occupied. I'm far from a cold person, but I cannot fathom that over 4 times the population of my home town has been wiped out....

i honsestly have been so wrappeed up in my own little world that i hardly watch TV, CD's not radio, and try not to look at a newspaper. It will sink in someday, alot like 9/11, so surreal to me. almost unbelievable. a total tragedy.

This is an old post I know, but why not contribute?
I recently found on the net a recording of the underwater earthquake that caused the tsunami. It was recorded by underwater microphones used to record just this sort of thing. It was by far the most eerie thing I have ever heard. Just imagining being fathoms deep in the darkness hearing this quiet sound come rolling in and turning into a deafening roar (as it did on my computer) I felt scared of that noise. I also saw video of the wave coming, and it looked so small when I watched it. It rolled in, but not like the movies have it towering over people. Maybe just bad point of view on the film. But that sound freaked me out. Here is a link so you can hear it. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8670264

hey that was really cool...thanks for posting it Daknjak

The tsunami made me feel cold and ineffectual. I had read somewhere that a magnitude 9 earthquake was powerful enough to rend the earths crust - it is at the outer limits of what we understand about the energy release capacity of our planet. And this let loose undersea, in a heavily populated area. I was frankly astonished at the low death toll, and how the destruction didn't run too far inland due to the relatively small waves generated (30 - 40 feet max I believe some of the worst hit places got).

The western world is past due for a major event that will make that tsunami look like a kiddie play park. There are sea mounts in the Atlantic (the Canary Islands) and the Pacific (in Hawaii) which are splitting apart. When they drop the water displaced will generate waves in the order of a couple of hundred feet in height and these waves will wash the entire ocean basin. They will travel at several hundred miles per hour, as well. This will transform the world, because the West will be rather preoccupied for a couple of generations after the shit hits the fan.

Seeing what happens on the (relatively) small scale of the Boxing Day Tsunami just brings home yet again how precarious everything is. And that in turn means that we should try to be a little more appreciative and effective in our lives. Because tommorrow someone else will be hearing about us - and I hope that we can make enough of a positive impact to actually be missed instead of just ignored or the source of bemused wonder.

That was incredible! Thanks for the link Daknjak.

Nature is so powerful, it reminds me of how small we really are in the scheme of things. I am always so humbled by nature...

Here is a link to a story I read about how the earthquake changed the earths shape and rotation.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-009