P. O. Box 53111, Atlanta, GA, 30355Tel. 404-417-0041

01-01-2014

In The Eye of the storm

The Forgotten Victims of Disaster

Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, the Philippines (2013)

The Tsunami at Fukushima, Japan (2011)

The Earthquake of Port-au-Prince, Haiti (2010)

Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, USA (2005)

As I watched on television the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan at Tacloban, the Philippines and the surrounding region, I found it to be so disturbing that momentarily I had to switch to another channel.If just watching on television sitting ten thousand miles away from the center of the devastated area was so disturbing to me, imagine what the people who were suffering from what the typhoon brought on them feel moment by moment waiting for the world to come to their aid.When help finally did arrive some 5-6 days later, it did not arrive soon enough.The magnitude of the catastrophe is simply beyond what humans can endure.

Superstorm Haiyan was so disturbing to me because of my experience and what I saw when I went on a mission to Haiti to report onRecovery and Reconstructionsoon after the earthquake hit that island nation in January, 2010.In Haiti, 300,000 lost their lives and 1.5 million people became homeless.The use of bulldozers to carry out mass burial of bodies is not one thing one would want to see.A million and half people living in squalor in tarpaulin tents is another thing one would not want to see ever.Haiti left me numb and speechless and I must confess I have not recovered to this day from the psychological effect.

My memory also goes back to the Summer of 1969 when I arrived in Dhaka, East Pakistan (Bangladesh) just days after a devastating cyclone hit that country causing untold death and destruction where 100,000 people lost their lives. Whole villages were wiped out. The image of bodies floating in Chittagong and the coastal region still remains seared in my memory.

Those (Bangladesh) days I would like to forget were behind me when Katrina (2005), Haiti (2010), Fukushima (2011) and Tacloban (2013) brought back the nightmare.After Haiti, it has become increasingly difficult for me to see devastations of such humongous magnitude caused by typhoons, cyclones, hurricanes and earthquakes.The human suffering is too much to bear.

As I write this essay to put those days I would like to forget behind me, I keep on asking myself why in the face of so much devastation, the loss of thousands of lives and destruction of homes

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and property do I want to talk about the “Miracle of Creation, Rebirth and Renewal.”Yes, the immediate reaction when confronted by so much devastation caused by such great destructive power is to feel depressed and feel deep inside that the end of the world might be near.But as we wake up the next day, we find the days turn into weeks, the weeks into months, and the months into years and we realize that the world has not come to an end.

Well, the miracle of rebirth and renewal I witnessed was when I saw children playing in the swamp in Haiti soon after tarpaulin tents were erected to accommodate one and half million who became homeless.The rain was pouring and there was not one inch of dry land.While parents and the adults were in a state of shock trying to figure out how they were going to make it from day-to-day, the children were playing unconcerned by the severe weather condition or the calamity that had fallen on the nation.It was also reported that babies were being born during and immediately after the earthquake hit the nation.Herein lies the miracle of rebirth and renewal.

In Tacloban, the Philippines we saw on television when babies were being delivered not in maternity wards but under the collapsed roofs of houses and even in the open air because there was not a single house standing.If this is not a miracle of birth and renewal what else would ever be considered as one?While thousands were losing their lives in an instant, babies were being born almost at the same time.Is this not God’s miracle where the dead were being replaced while the storm had not yet cleared the land.As happened in Haiti,in Tacloban, we also sawsurviving children playing on top of rubbles of what used to be their home yesterday.

The story of the miracle of rebirth and renewal is that there is always recovery after the storm.I guess the cycle of destruction, rebirth and renewal will be with us until the end of time.When we see the massive destruction left by hurricanes, typhoons and earth quakes, it appears to us to be apocalyptic – a prophetic revelation that the end of the world is here.But soon it turns into a miracle of birth and renewal when we observe children playing and babies being born.Soon, recovery takes place and life returns to normal – the new normal.How Great isGod’sMiracle !How soon we forget all those who perished?

I believe it is about time the United Nations should declare (for all nations to observe) one calendar day during the year “Remembrance Day” of all those who perish(ed) in Hurricane, Typhoon, Cyclone, Earthquake and other natural calamities.

Mezgebou G. Amlak

መዝገቡገ/አምላክ

01/01/2014