December 28th, 2004 by Eshin
Crap. I think I shall go and shoot myself. Evidently I’m not very popular as I’m scraping along the bottom at the Asia Weblog Awards in the Best Hong Kong Blog. Do I want to cry like a little girl? Yes. This shall drive my self-esteem to the lowest point it’s ever been and drive me to become more of the cynical bastard that I am.
The one positive thing about the current rankings is that Gweilo Diaries is no longer in the front position. Although I’m surprised that my personal favourites - Glutter and Shaky - aren’t doing as well as I thought. Of course, Mia is quite rightly up there chasing the leaders.
Go vote here if you haven’t already done so.
December 28th, 2004 by Eshin
On a lighter note, I sms’d my ex-girlfriend who is Thai to see whether she and her family were okay. She also happens to be five months pregnant and she happily felt the need to send me back a one-liner that simply said “My belly is so big!”. I can almost imagine her smile when she felt the need to tell me that. Despite being a flight attendant for CX, I guess she wasn’t the one and I have horrible sneaking suspicion that I’d have ended up married and near fatherhood by now if I’d stayed with her.
I guess I’m still not sure whether my smile is for her happiness, fate helping me to dodge a bullet or that she wasn’t anywhere near the disaster zone in Thailand. I suspect all three.
December 27th, 2004 by Eshin
My God… the death toll just keeps rising. One almost wishes it was a 911 style inaccuracy where the death toll was only a small percentage of the grossly exaggerated figures. But these appear to be confirmed figures and will no doubt not include the many that simply vanished as if they never existed.
Sky News did the incourtesy of actually showing some of the dead and those grieving them in the pictures that they aired. Evidently Murdoch knows no limits to dramatise a tragedy.
Like most of the major news networks, the BBC had eye witness accounts from mainly Thailand (who seemed to be mostly German for some reason). The presenter did have the professionalism to remind us that largest impact would be on the local populations. D’uh.
And the funniest of it all is that they had some geological pundit telling us that the location wasn’t unexpected but the scale of it was. Bullshit. Geological experts have been telling us that we are all due, whatever region be it the Pacific, Europe or wherever, that volcanoes have lain dormant for too long and that major shifts of the plates are long overdue. It just wasn’t exciting news until now.
This is just a sad a reminder that we aren’t masters of our world at all and that however clever we may think we are with our science, genetic engineering, and other technologies, we are still rank amateurs when it comes to affecting the world when compared to Mother Nature. More money needs to go into warning systems and monitoring systems, than into chasing phantom menaces. But it will always be damage limitation since Mother Nature will always be in control.
December 27th, 2004 by Eshin
Well, I stand corrected. My mate’s staying in a police station for the night and luckily she hasn’t had to go through the trauma that some of the survivors of the tsunami have had to go through. Having said that, this whole thing is enough to make anyone traumatic regardless.
I’m still worried for some people I haven’t heard from, who might be in the region on holiday or visiting family. But then if the nerves and concern I have for them is anything to go by, I’d reckon replying to my emails isn’t the highest priority on the list. Besides, SMS would work quicker.
Anyway, I hope all my friends are alright including those that might have take a quick down to Thailand this holiday season without letting me know. If anyone I know knows of anyone who did go down there that I do know (excuse the play on words), then can they let me know via SMS or my private email.
December 26th, 2004 by Eshin
Asia doesn’t need this now but then I suppose there is never any good time for these things. My heart goes out to the people of the affected countries - Thailand, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka - and I think I’ve accounted for all the people I know in these countries. One friend is still trapped down in Thailand but as a testament to the Thai people’s hospitality, even amidst their own personal tragedy, she and her friends have managed to find some Thai people that will take them in for the night.
A 6000+ region wide death toll is both staggering and appalling; and the economic fallout will be felt in the region and by the region’s poorest for years to come. As I said, Asia doesn’t need this.
