Few disasters have come as greater surprises than this one, and part of that surprise was its origin in nature rather than man. Perhaps that's one reason George W. Bush and Tony Blair, shuttered in the closed universe of the man-made "war" on man-made terror, were so slow to awaken to the dimensions of the catastrophe. (Both leaders remained on vacation for more than a week after the event.) They seemed unable to conceive of a tragedy that was both irrelevant to their crusade and hugely exceeded it in scale and human importance. But in truth, most people around the world seemed disoriented by nature's shock. The human capacity for mass destruction has been so highly developed in our time that we seem, without quite realizing it, almost to have claimed title to the art, as if to say, "Wait, how can nature do this? Isn't killing hundreds of thousands of people our business?"
Which brings me to another topic. Early in December I changed my email signature to read ...
If the frogs or bees could have weapons of mass destruction, perhaps we'd show a little more respect for the earth!
How I wish this event could be proved to be connected to the way we treat the Earth. Mother Nature fighting back against the parasites of humanity would be a powerful message. Alas, the affected countries are not the ones to blame. If Nature showed vengeance and was also just, the Tsunami would have hit the East Coast of the USA, rather than the poor nations of South West Asia.
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