Much like my country, I’ve been enjoying my vacation, relaxedly resting “stingy”:http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1104291020957 in my posting. But the coverage of the “Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake on “the French TV station”:http://www.tv5.org/TV5Site/programmes/accueil_continent.php in my hotel are compelling and shocking.
The “latest reports”:http://asia.news.yahoo.com/041229/afp/041229000739int.html suggest that the death toll will pass 100,000. That’s 100,000 dead in minutes or hours. To put that number in perspective:
* In the 20 years of the Vietnam War, “about 58,000 Americans were killed”:http://www.archives.gov/research_room/research_topics/vietnam_war_casualty_lists/statistics.html#year
* The battle of Antietam is often called the bloodiest day on American soil. “26,000 died”:http://www.civilwarhome.com/Battles.htm.
* In the bloody, chaotic battle at the beginning of “Saving Private Ryan”:http://imdb.com/title/tt0120815/, D-Day, 10,000 “American and British soldiers were killed and wounded”:http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/faq.htm.
* In the largest battle of World War II, “the Battle of Kursk”:http://www.themilitarybookreview.com/html/Kursk1943.shtml between the Germans and Russians in 1943, 56,000 Germans were killed and wounded.
* 66,000 were killed when the atom bomb was “dropped on Hiroshima”:http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/abomb/mp10.htm
The quake and tsunami were devastating on other measures too:
* Islands were “moved”:http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=IESG1YFI1NHI2CRBAELCFFA?type=scienceNews&storyID=7194479
* The Earth began to “spin faster and wobble”:http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=IESG1YFI1NHI2CRBAELCFFA?type=scienceNews&storyID=7195443
This disaster has fallen on “some of those who are least able to help themselves”:http://www.clarkefoundation.org/#122704. The nations of the world are “stepping”:http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/29/international/worldspecial4/29cnd-prex.html?oref=login “up”:http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-12-29-tsunami-usat_x.htm. This holiday season, let’s all give to help the victims of this disaster. “Click here to donate to Doctors Without Borders”:http://www.kintera.org/atf/cf/%7BA54B526F-06CB-4D53-8A37-C33976730CAB%7D/dwb.htm.
Comments (0)