monday (17 july) late night learned of the tsunami in java, indonesia via the net. tuesday (18 july) morning woke up, quickly open the star paper, expected to see the tsunami news on front-page… but what greeted me instead was the headline “we are fated for each other” with a huge picture of siti nurhaliza (malaysia’s so called pop darling) and her soon to be hubby, datuk k, and inside a whole page dedicated to news of her. wtf?? a celebrity’s wedding more important than a major disaster? has it got to such a state that the paper think a picture of siti and her future hubby will attract readers more than a picture of the tsunami disaster? did they think people nowadays are so hungry for news of the personal lives of celebrities than to bother with natural disasters that claim hundreds of lives? i hope not, i hope not.

yes, no doubt that it’s true in a way that people are attracted to the personal lives of celebrities but let’s get this straight…. between important issues like the tsunami, the haze, and celebrities’ personal lives, shouldn’t we give priority to those important issues? i read in yesterday’s paper under the citizens blog that, yesterday, on the airwaves too, many stations were talking about siti’s wedding. everybody was trying to be busybody and gave thier views what they think of siti marrying an older man. the writer ‘localview’ was amazed that people tend to channel their time and energy discussing the personal lives of celebrities when they should channel their energy towards more important issues like how they can help the tsunami victims, what they should do during the haze and so on.

ok since i mentioned the tsunami here, i’ll talk about the tsunami now (and not about siti!).

it’s sad ttsunami.jpgo note that once again indonesia had been hit by the tsunami… and not too long ago, they were hit by an earthquake in yogjakarta too. as it is now, there were about 500 people reported dead. god bless thier souls. i just hope the death toll will not exceed 1000.

it seemed that indonesia received a warning of the impending tsunami but they failed to sound the tsunami warning to the people because they do not have a ‘working detection buoy in place.’ how sad.

i’m sure many of you still remember the 2004 boxing day tsunami that claimed over 200,00 lives in indonesia and the tsunami occured in other countries as well, in our own country too, claiming over 60 lives. what happened, asked ashar ghani of asianewsnet, why 2 tsunamis in 2 years?

Constant movement between two tectonic plates triggered Monday’s (July 17) tsunami and December 2004’s disaster, and is expected to send more earthquakes–and possibly tsunamis–Indonesia’s way.

The country is on the ”Ring of Fire”–a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that encircles the basin of the Pacific Ocean. It is shaped like a horseshoe and it is 40,000km long.

Suhardjono, head of the earthquake unit of Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency BMG, said yesterday (July 18) that Monday’s tsunami and the one in 2004 were caused by movements at the intersection of the Indo-Australian and Eurasian plates within the ring.

”The two plates are jammed together and in constant motion, causing a build-up of energy that is waiting to be released,” he said.

sounds frightening, eh? i’m glad i do not live in indonesia.

note: picture taken from BBC news showing people looking among the debris for thier loved ones.

UPDATED links:

why were two tsunami alerts ignored?