Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Earthquake..

Two days ago, in Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore, I was at a Christmas concert, "A Jazzy Christmas" concert, by Jeremy Monteiro featuring sax great Ernie Watts and vocalist Carmen Bradford (amazing concert, by the way). Just before the last song of the first set, Jeremy talked about an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, and that a lot of people died in the tsunami (harbour wave) that resulted from that quake. He requested for a minute of silence from everyone. I was puzzled, as in ".. what was he talking about?". When I saw the news in Channel News Asia when I got back that night, I had realised to the full extent of what happened. Just before my departure from Singapore, I was sitting at my aunt's house watching the news. They showed the damage that had taken place in various parts of the continent surrounding the earthquake, from Sri Lanka, the west coast of Thailand, Sumatra, and even a small part of Penang. They showed bodies of people and children that had died from drowning, at some of the worst hit areas. I cannot even explain how I felt when I saw it. All I can do is pray.

A moment of silence, and my prayers go out to those who had perished in the natural disaster.

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