• pigduck
• Dec 28,2006
• In: Rants

Crippled - Disasters and such

Today, Malaysia was crippled. Considering I work for an online based company, it was quite a nightmare going to the office and realising that surfing was just not moving at all.

It became clear some time mid-morning that the situation was not going to get any better. I started reading up on what people had to say about this telecommunications outage that was caused by the earthquake that hit Taiwan on 26 December 2006.

I have to say, I knew about the earthquake right after it happened. It was after dinner and I had decided to check the latest… I went to Yahoo and there were the words ‘tsunami’ and ‘earthquake’ and ‘Philippines’ and ‘Taiwan’ highlighted and prominent. It was hard to take it all in since it was after all the 2nd anniversary of the 2004 Tsuanmi.

I started shouting like a madwoman and running towards the tv to switch CNN on. Obviously, it was breaking news and CNN had it in their ticker bar and news updates but still everything was so vague. My little sister’s friend in HK had felt the earthquake. Apparently, her apartment was shaking, her soft toys had fallen to the ground, everything was rattling and everyone was screaming, residents of her apartment block were running out of the building, her apartment was literally swaying from side to side… imagine that. A nightmare.  

A couple of hours later, the tsunami warning was called off and all of us thought things were safe. I did anyway…I went to bed pretty relieved. Who knew that the devastation would occur after we were all asleep?

The undersea cables that connected South Asia to US and to the rest of the Northern hemisphere was damaged by the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. 6 of them in total. I have to say that’s extensive damage to say the least.

While reading comments by Malaysian Internet addicts… gamers, torrent hogs and the like, some of them made some interesting, ignorant comments.

My parents and I were talking about last night in fact… why does it always happen on the 26th of December? It’s a sign of some sort… a glitch in the orbit as my mom put it. I am sure all of us are wondering. It is definitely not a coincidence anymore. First Iran, then the tsunami and now this major telecommunications breakdown.

To be honest, a telecommunications outage is as bad as a tsunami. Of course no lives are are fatally lost but if you think about it, people who are so reliant on technology or who depend on such things are crippled to an extent that they can’t exactly function. Economies are affected, millions of dollars are lost… it’s isolation that in a way, stirs up fear.

And to read of so many countries affected by this outage that will take weeks to rectify can you imagine how many people will be affected? I am thinking not just millions of dollars but billions of dollars gone… or wasted…

For most of us, while we were on our own here in Malaysia, and kept in the dark over what had happened in Taiwan, all we knew to do was to blame our broadband provider, TM Streamyx. It deserves it though. Their rubbish customer care service, just thinking of them gets my blood boiling, their unhelpful technicians… in fact the worst thing about it all is their standard, rehearsed answers that after awhile make you feel like you’re voluntarily ramming yourself against a brick wall for their pleasure. That’s what it feels like every time I call them up.

So I was reading what people had to say about this telecommunications earthquake. It definitely isn’t a minor, “let’s glaze over it” kind of issue… it’s major and it has and will affect millions of people in the days to come.

Therefore, is the 26th of December, jinx day? Most of us would agree that it’s a day not to be taken lightly.

It has affected me and I am nothing but a fly on the wall… not even a fly with googly eyes but a fruit fly. Read more here, here and here. 

————————————————–

Besides the extremely bad telecommunications outage, there were floods in Malaysia and Indonesia that have killed people. Of course, again Indonesia has more fatalities but it’s not like Malaysia was spared. In fact, it seems like we were hit with torrential and never ending rains in the south of Malaysia that saw flood waters rise to the rooftops.

Yes, so it flooded Aceh too and yet it seems that aid and relief always travels to Indonesia first. Sure, Sumatra and these places were ravaged by the tsunami but Malaysia too suffered. But I guess it depends who goes out to ask for help. Indonesia seems to accept help more than Malaysia. Which in a way is to show the world that we are self-sufficient but seriously, it’s silly. We have so many people displaced and yet, relief efforts are not reported, we really don’t know what’s going on down south of our country and what more, we’re more informed of the situation in Indonesia than we are of the situation in our own land! What is going on?!

And of course, which situation is more dire. If Malaysians can handle it why do we need outside help but that’s our problem? We want to make the situation seem manageable but yet there are reports of looting and extortion. It must be a nightmare and I still feel rather helpless. I would love to fly down and help them but what can I do? I would love to donate but where do I do that? How do we do that? It’s all so vague and quiet. Why aren’t the newspapers doing campaigns, setting up funds and mobilising the people? Is it because the government is so hush-hush about it that we have no idea how or where to begin? Maybe they are afraid this will affect tourism since it is Visit Malaysia 2007 soon.

During the tsunami, our northern states were hit quite badly too and again, they shut up and refused help, saying that we could manage. I heard fishing villages were wiped out and yet nobody knew about it. Or nobody really reported the extent of the damage.

It seems that Malaysians are private people. I guess in a way, it’s to say, “hey look, if we don’t meddle in your business, we don’t expect you to meddle in ours”.

Somehow, I feel the country isn’t getting together to do their part… I mean, I go to work and people aren’t even talking about what’s happening Johor, instead they have the gall to make snide comments like, “Thank God I live in KL”. I mean… what planet are Malaysians from? Oh wait, this apathy and unpatriotic nature stens from….??? How the hell did we become like this? We’re monsters who don’t care at all. 

I don’t think it’s about showing the world we are self-sufficient… I think it’s more of, “if they don’t care, why should we?”

————————————-

One more major item of interest. The newspaper today had two articles that to me screams something is going to happen soon. Maybe it has and if it’s the Taiwan earthquake then we have to thank God that things weren’t as bad as it seemed. Apparently, a day or two ago, a lot of cockles were washed up to shore and also this jelly like sea creature has surfaced reminiscient of what happened just before the tsunami hit in 2004. Of course, at the time, people were clueless and now I wonder if we still are.

The point is, let’s not take any of this lightly. Today, I was reading of Indonesia doing a nationwide tsunami drill… and I’m wondering now if the sea is trying to tell us something… Oh well… the only thing we can do is pray about it… and hope God is not trying to teach us a lesson… all thiese water tragedies reminds me of the Great Flood that took place in the Old Testament where all of the known world was flooded for 40 days and 40 nights. It’s great that God made a promise not to do that ever again.

I was thinking about this today. If God is trying to tell us something, we are definiyrly deaf and blind.