11:06 PM - 26.12.04
Veggies
The big news today was the major earthquakes centering around Indonesia, but affecting millions of people in over a dozen countries. Guess Mother Earth doesn't recognize political boundaries. I found this website developed by staff at the University of Edinburgh Quake_finder quite revealing. It allows one to look at earthquake activity by a range of dates or by location. I called up a map of activity for the period from the beginning of November to Christmas Eve this year, just to see if the event could have been predicted. Well, yes and no. The Pacific "Ring of Fire" was really active along the coast of North, Central and South America as well as along the Indonesia, China, Japan corridor. Surprisingly, there was an almost linear sequence of events starting at the Rock of Gibraltar and extending across the Mediterranean Sea and into the Hindu Kush. Hmmmmm. On this day exactly one year ago another earthquake took 30,000 lives in Bam, Iran - remember? Whether that activity is average for those areas could only be determined by casting maps of those regions for the same dates over several years. Maybe I'll try that tomorrow.
The reasons for my more than usual interest in this quake were simple. One of my cousins is representing the Canadian Government in one of the nations hit by the quake today. If she was in the city where she is posted to work she will be fine. I hope that is the case. No news is good news I guess, but the reports note that it will be days or weeks before a complete listing of the dead or missing will be fully tallied. All communication is out in some of the areas where she might also have been vactioning so she might not be able to call home, if she was holidaying in any of those places.
The other issue of interest for me is the political stability of the region. A lot of the terroism that has occurred globally the past year has had connections with this area. There has also been significant resistance to those extremeists and their governments by the local populations. How will the death toll and destruction affect that balance of power. For example, I was watching a special about Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi last night. She was being interviewed from her residence in Myanmar and it appeared that the filming was recent - since her last round of torture and imprisonment by that country's military junta. Instability may be the junta's excuse to roll back all the progress Suu Kyi's supporters have died for in order to achieve them the past few years. The rebel area of Sri Lanka - Tamil territory - and in Aceh, where resistance to the Indonesian madmen/rulers is fierce, were completely inundated according to earliest reports. How will that tip the balance in those countries?
If there is any enlightened self interest in the western nations, how do we help those countries get back on their feet both economically and politically so that the stability required for a more democratic distribution of power can be achieved. If we are gifted with one very small window of opportunity to help without making the population there feel more fearful of just trading oppressors (the West as opposed to their own home-grown dictators - choose the devil you know rather than the one you don't syndrome) how best to proceed?
Other than watching the news, I have just cocooned for the day. I want to get rid of this flu completely, so I gave myself permission to do nothing but cuddle with the cats for one whole day. My youngest is attached to his game system trying out his new gifts from his Dad and brothers, so he is totally oblivious to my absence. The weather is the other reason for the decision. Last night temperatures plunged to that -30C with the wind chill factored in. Even if my bank account and credit card balance weren't completely tapped out, there is no way I'd want to be fussing with shopping or socializing today. Meant to be I think and thankfully so.
Think I'll go nap now though - housework and paperwork tomorrow. Good night dear diary.
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