Tsunami

when nature strikes you cannt do anything.Did anyone see the movie THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW here they showed the same thing when ocean came into the streets of new york and destroyed everything and people were unable to do anything against that all.
And i think it happened the same

Saddist thing for Asians. It is heartbreaking to wtch on TV, so I have stopped. Felt helpless.

tahmed32:

You have explained the tsunami phenomenon in very lucid terms and placed the whole tragedy in the larger scheme of nature.

Yes, we do indeed forget how insignificant we all are in cosmic scheme of things.

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i just feel its freezing out there at this time of the year. In indonesia, india... and the majority of the people who have been affected... are sadly the unprivileged lot...

in pakistan at this time... i wrap up in my bankie every night and am all cozy and warm and sip on delicious soup or home made tea... while the family sits together and discusses life...

i wonder how they`re surviving... on empty stomachs... empty souls... some who`ve lost entire families... children orphaned... even for those who have survived.. hate to imagine the reality they get up to ever day!

its so cold out there... freezing cold... God Bless them. God Bless us all! Aameen.

and sadly, the death toll is rising. everytime i switch to the news, there`s an increase in the death toll.
``Protected by the biosphere, we are oblivious to the powerful forces that surround us`` ``While intellectually aware of these things, we do not think much of them as we go about our daily lives`` How true! what i dont understand is how and why werent people alerted of this earlier? what happened to all technological advances?
the worst is yet to come... sad as it is... the final number of those affected by tsunamis is expected to touch or border somewhere close to 100,000... with experts predicting that disease and epidemic will take its toll...

yesterday I was thinking wheres Allah ? I was asking Allah yesterday in my prayers why ? how come always poor dies? and the rich are in there planes or yarts ! why ? I asked the maulana sahib of my mosque someone who is a very educated man unlike usual malvis , his answer was ` Ali Beta , Allah didnt made the world on the basis of equality - if this would have happened - everyone would have been equal and this would have been a ideal world - ` - --
people who died were already somewhat zombies - the more I think of them the more my heart melts -
Salam Alikum

tahmed:

mauj der mauj
reality
is not real
often
merely an illusion
--a perception decorated
with imbedded prejudices
and ensconced with our fears

another day, another year
will we still feel what we feel now?

for the rest CLICK HERE

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Ahmek,
You forgot to write that India lost of its claim to superiority in technology by 8000 bodies.. !!

We are collecting funds to distribute to the disaster victims through the aid agencies. Our karachi-based charity organization KKF (www.kkfonline.org) regularly provides relief.

Please send your check or money orders to and write your SS# or National ID number on the check:

In Pakistan
ST-7, Block-14, Federal B Area, Karachi, Pakistan
Phone: ++92 21 6333811 – Fax: ++92 21 6323839

Account Title: KKF
Account No: 3650-0
Bank: Allied Bank of Pakistan Ltd.,
(Address: Dastagir Colony Branch, Federal B Area, Karachi)


In the UK
Account Title: MQF
Account Number: 3932079
Sort Code: 30-98-07
Bank: Lloyds TSB
(Address: 105 Station Road, Edgware, Middlesex, HA8 7JL)

In the US and Canada
Account Title: Khidmat-e-Khalq Committee
Account Number: 004125586890
Bank: Bank of America
(Address: 443 School Street, Woodbridge, NJ 07095)


Please indicate on check or money order South Asia Disaster Relief
A tax reciept will be mailed back to you as well.

Kind Regards
Shabber Abbas
shabber_abbas@hotmail.com

i remember driving from colombo to Yala across from Galle in Srilanka..apparently the whole thing is wiped out! folks on that coast are the nicest people i ever met. the bay of bengal always scared me..when you look out from mahabalipuram, it always looks angry. i will not look at any beach the same as before.

friend:

#12 was not called for...least of all from you!

A very good article on a very human tragedy.

I am afraid that not much will happen from this brief moment of compassion. We are all shocked by the event but for the wrong reason. What we are seeing and hearing is not sorrow expressed about the loss of life, but an admission towards humanity`s own fraility. It is just that this particular event coincided with the end of the year, when everyone is overcome with the commerical sentiments of Christmas and ``joy to the world``. We are all saddened by the event, because of it was of such a huge magnitude that it lucidily framed the insignificance of humanity`s power in comparsion to the forces of nature.

Listen to the words of the arrogant and the foolish! The talk in the aftermath of this disaster is that an early warning system would have prevented this nightmare and we are still clinging to the false believe in the supremacy of our technological powress. We still, mistakenly, think we can alter the future and we can prevent incidents like this by deploying senors to forewarn us of an impending peril. We are still fascinated with our ageless battle to defeat death and we still salivate to proclaim our immortality as a victory over nature. We have still not learned humility in the face of nature and instead of hubris, we strut on the stage littered with dead and broken bodies, like a pharoah, craving adulation to the myth of our own invincibility.

The world will band about and offer offers of aid but in the end, nothing will materialize. Last year, around this time, there was an earthquake in Bam, Iran and nearly 30,000 people died. Before that, there was major earthquake in Turkey and an entire city was flattened. For the victims of Bam, aid was offered and a year later, who remembers Bam? Who remembers the dead from yesterday, while the media curlishly relishes new headlines with more grim statistics tomorrow. This too will fade from the TV screens and disappear from the newspapers and from memories. The only people who will carry the memory will be the ones forgotten by the world and only they will have courage to rebuild their lives with their own tears and not with the kindness and compassion of the words of the world`s good intentions.

I can cry for the dead and the suffering or I can cry for the nature of humanity, which will not change from its own selfish egocentric values. I do not know for whom and what reason I should cry for, but I do know that I must cry for I am afraid of human nature and that is enough to me cry.

Ciao

jang #10 galle in sri lanka did seem to have suffered greatly. There was an entire train with a thousand passengers where over 800 of them seem to have lost their lives due to the flood. Being at a place where tragedy strikes does make such events very real indeed. Another place badly hit was the island of Phuket off the coast of Thailand. I spent a couple of nights there many years ago, and have always remembered the dreamlike vision of waving palm trees and the ocean beyond that that one could see from the upper floor hotel room I occupied. The locals were a gentle, friendly people - and the place was on its way to becoming a popular vacation resort.

friend: thanks for contributing your thoughtful views. :-)

temporal #8 That is indeed a beautiful poem that you have written in your I-log. It captures the point I was trying to make in a very eloquent manner. Indeed, a few short years from now we will all be gone from earth. ``ik nai haqiqat lai gi janam``, as you put it. Let us do whatever little we can to make that ``nai haqiqiat`` a little bit better for future generations - even if it as little as spreading a bit of goodwill around. Glad to see you were inspired into writing the poem by the tsunami just as I was inspired to stay up late last night putting together this article.

kaurasach #8 You make two important points, namely (1) that the tsunami did not distinguish on the basis of race, religion or wealth; and (2) ``Man thinks its the chosen one...a delusion``.

And indeed these points are important to remember. I have already discussed (1) in an earlier response below. On (2), mankind is indeed not the ``chosen species`` (ashraf-ul-makhlookaat) as we like to think. I recall a Quranic phrase which says that God placed man on earth, and can replace him with another species. We take our fragile existence too much for granted.

more important than praying -- is contributing -- Oxfam and Care -- two genuine organizations where our contributions will get to the bereaved -- the rising death toll will reach almost 100,000 -- our callous crude President is having his vacation and wont cut it short and come back to the Capital -- to directly reassure the South Asian nations --

a paltry sum of 15 million with another promise of 20 million from the richest and the most powerful country of the world has been promised -- a drop in the bucket -- for this humongous catastrophe of Himalayan proportions that descended upon the people of 7 countries....

the astounding development is that we in the West KNEW exactly -- the moments after -- the time, the location and the scale of -- when and where the earthquake occurred -- and we knew from our science of ocean earthquakes and our past experiences that after the earthquake a tsunami will follow like a night following the day -- but the West sat on the information and did not bother to WARN the coastal countries...

the wave took 1- 2 hours to hit Sri Lanka and India -- the warning could have saved thousands of lives -- but nothing was done -- now that amounts to an inexcusable CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE on the part of the West......for which they must bear the brunt of relief expenses -- that will run not -- in`millions` -- but in BILLIONS....

Succubus #6 In response to your question, tsunamis (before this one) have not occurred over the past century almost in the Indian Ocean region. They have been associated with the Pacific Ocean (which has the vast Ring of Fire of tectonic activity stretching from the south pacific to japan, hawaii. alaska (which had the large major tsunami back in 1961 I think), the west coast of the US and of latin america). While earthquakes cannot be predicted with great certainty, tsunamis can be detected through sensors placed under the ocean that detect the high speed underwater waves generated by the tsunami I mention in the article. This gives a few hours for people to evacuate the shorelines.

more important than praying -- is contributing -- Oxfam and Care -- two genuine organizations where our contributions will get to the bereaved -- the rising death toll will reach almost 100,000 -- our callous crude President is having his vacation and wont cut it short and come back to the Capital -- to directly reassure the South Asian nations --

a paltry sum of 15 million with another promise of 20 million from the richest and the most powerful country of the world has been promised -- a drop in the bucket -- for this humongous catastrophe of Himalayan proportions that descended upon the people of 7 countries....

the astounding development is that we in the West KNEW exactly -- the moments after -- the time, the location and the scale of -- when and where the earthquake occurred -- and we knew from our science of ocean earthquakes and our past experiences that after the earthquake a Psunami will follow like a night following the day -- but the West sat on the information and did not bother to WARN the coastal countries...

the wave took 1- 2 hours to hit Sri Lanka and India -- the warning could have saved thousands of lives -- but nothing was done -- now that may be called CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE that amounts to committing Genocide against the Asians by default....

labyrinth #4 With all due respect to the maulvi, Allah did create all of us as equal. It is our own attitudes that create inequality - this tsunami provides a powerful reminder, since the powerful former German chancellor Helmut Kohl (who was vacationing in Sri Lanka) was equal to the poorest villager as far as the tsunami was concerned. The tsunami lends weight to the Quranic emphasis on the equality of all individuals before God, regardless of race, religion or status in that we humans have accorded that individual.

smartsyco #2 You are right about the similarity between the movie ``Day after tomorrow`` where a giant wave was created by another kind of a natural phenomenon: the smashing into earth of an asteroid. And indeed, asteroids are just another example of the fragile existence of life on earth that I mention in the article.

Dost Mittar #3 Glad you appreciated the description of the tsunami phenomenon. And the basic point was indeed, as you say, on how oblivious we are to the insignificance of political and other issues in the larger scheme of things - a glimpse of which has been provided by this tsunami. And a glimpse of which is provided every time someone we know dies.

The aftermath of Tsunami is even going to be worse with diseases like cholera Hepatitis and Typhoid on the rise due to no drinking water or contaminated one. Dehydration and matnutrition and other problems will arise for the survivors.

Correct me if I am wrong but I heard that the water ,though engulfed all the coastal areas ,but it came upto only 300 yards or so on the ground and also there was a time of 2.5 hrs when it struck first and later reached the other countries.

if thats the case , rapid evacuations , clearing the coastal areas could have saved lots of lives. why wasnt the information emergently shared ?

re: this disaster
when disaster of this magnitude strikes, it leaves everyone in a daze. For the past 2 days, i have been spending my time glued to TV and internet, trying to figure out how and why all this happened.
Against nature`s fury, man has no control. I heard horror stories of kids playing cricket by the side of Marina Beach (Madras) washed away, of one gentleman in my father`s neighbourhood who was taking his daily ritual walk by the beach and never returned. I saw heart-rending pictures of cries of anguish from fishermen near the seacoast whose family members and breadearners were washed away by Tsunami.
Science has a long way to go before it can control nature. This is very clear from this tragedy.
I would urge those who are donating for the cause to do so to well known international agencies (like the Red cross, CARE etc) rather than to individual NGOs in their respective countries. The reason is: only these international agencies have the means to deliver aid in time.
I respect Tahmed`s sentiments in this article. But then, it is difficult to change people`s mindset so easily. Some Sinhalese in Srilanka were obstructing aid to Tamil dominated areas during this tragedy. Talk about narrow mindedness!
Sridhar

re: this disaster
when disaster of this magnitude strikes, it leaves everyone in a daze. For the past 2 days, i have been spending my time glued to TV and internet, trying to figure out how and why all this happened.
Against nature`s fury, man has no control. I heard horror stories of kids playing cricket by the side of Marina Beach (Madras) washed away, of one gentleman in my father`s neighbourhood who was taking his daily ritual walk by the beach and never returned. I saw heart-rending pictures of cries of anguish from fishermen near the seacoast whose family members and breadearners were washed away by Tsunami.
Science has a long way to go before it can control nature. This is very clear from this tragedy.
I would urge those who are donating for the cause to do so to well known international agencies (like the Red cross, CARE etc) rather than to individual NGOs in their respective countries. The reason is: only these international agencies have the means to deliver aid in time.
I respect Tahmed`s sentiments in this article. But then, it is difficult to change people`s mindset so easily. Sinhalese in Srilanka were obstructing aid to Tamil dominated areas during this tragedy. Talk about narrow mindedness!
Sridhar

May god give the victims and their kins the strength to recover from the loss of their loved ones.

Here`s another link for donations.
http://us.rediff.com/news/2004/dec/29tsunami.htm

As per some western expert, the quake at the epicenter had power of a million atom bombs and it made the earth wobble on its axis.

Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres). They have been focusing on some of the areas most devastated by the 9.2 earthquake, like Sumatra, where the island actually moved 100 feet, destroying virtually every structure on it.

Their website is swamped, but you can call 1-888-392-0392 to make a contribution.

tahmed32:
A drastic change from the stance of the ``The Poetry of Physics.``
Your sentiments about the tsunami tragedy are commendable. I wish humanity could find the needed equilibrium. The following comes to mind; define God in any which way hereunder.
``God, give me the courage to change what I can, the humility to accept what I can not, and the wisdom to see the difference.``
Let us hope the nationalities come together to assuage the hurt to the biosphere. If they do that and subsume the ``petty`` differences humans will have another proof of the divine - define this in any which way - light in them.

MQMPower: While I am not a fan of MQM in light of their past record of fanning ethnic divisions in Pakistan, I do salute your worthy efforts at fund raising at this time. We in Pakistan were fortunate to have been spared the wrath of this storm, and should do what we can to help. I understand a PAF C-130 was sent to sri lanka quite soon after the disaster struck.

#16 raka

for most tsunamis, all it takes is a few minutes notice to get to a higher ground. hawaii has sirens on its beaches. cost of the equipment is not that big, its the manning it with scientist thats somewhat costly. based on historical evidence, such event would be rare in that part of the world, but then the scientist will always do something with the data.

Hey Tauheed,

Thanks for the article. Did it really rise upto 60 feet!!! Read up on your comment re: replacement of man. Correct me if I`m wrong but I believe it was something about God replacing one nation with another more worthy nation and then that new nation`s actions being considered as to whether it deserves being in existence etc etc etc.

I agree with your sentiments re: Bin Laden but I don`t think he`s the right man to quote. Really, none of us associate with him. It would be more appropriate for us to quote the state sponsored terrorism by our democracies and the 100,000+ Iraqi deaths - a common number shared between the two disasters - because I am British, you are American, and we have both contributed a little towards propagating that artificial disaster with our ignorance.

But you`re right, our selfishness and preoccupation with our lives can lead us to forget the bigger picture.

Guys, OXFAM is an excellent organisation. These guys have 60 years of experience behind them. They work in 70 countires. For every Pound, Dollar, Rupee you donate, 85-89% of it will go directly into the actual work. Also, the organisation prides itself on providing simple, commonsense solutions to big problems.

An upcoming example of the tsunami problem would be dirty water, cholera, diarrhoea and access to clean water. Oxgam`s solution to the entire complex problem would be a giant tub of water! Big, made of sterile material and capped at the top, its a painfully simple solution to a real problem and something like 20-25 Pounds could provide about 5000 people with clean water!

Just google for their website.

Thanks again, Tauheed.
Umer M.

tahmed #24:

gargantuan and deadly as the tsunami was...i must confess the inspiration or the catalyst was your article

rgds

t

While India`s enemies continue with their mock show of sympathy and empathy at the sight of destruction caused by the tsunami on their beloved neighbours , it would no doubt irritate them that the wreckage was not as severe as it could potentially have been. Yesterday , frontline Pakistani newspapers - daily times and perhaps dawn - carried mischievous frontpage reports exulting over an apparent `extensive` damage to the nuclear power plant at Kalpakkam , Tamil Nadu....filled with orgasmic ecstasy as they were at the thought of a nuclear catastrophe striking out the hated Indians.....

But sadly for them , their optimism was misplaced. The reactor has been found to be safe and functional. The plant however has been closed temporarily as the workers and their families were evacuated as a precautionary measure. Work is said to begin in a couple of days.

nasah #20 Agreed that Oxfam and other large charities are good bets to donate money to. Disagree on your condemnation of the west for not doing enough. The responsibility for emergency preparedness rests first and foremost with the individuals and governments concerned. In case of Thailand, the government is supposed to have explicitly decided not to send out a tsunami alert after the initial tremors were felt since they did not wish to scare away the thousands of western tourists who were there at the height of the tourist season over christmas. Ultimately, one has to recognize that this region did not experience tsunamis in recorded memory and so the complacency is to some extent understadable.

It is the broader complacency over emergency preparedness in countries like Pakistan that I mention in my post to Raka that we need to be concerned with.

Raka #16 Indeed, even a few hours notice, plus some previous disaster response planning, would have no doubt saved most of these lives. But emergency planning is not high on the list of items in third world countries - even simple, cost-less measures like putting on seat belts (which hang uselessly on the side) are laughed off as a form of western softness in Pakistan as I recall. And yet, thousands of lives would be saved in Pakistan each year if people wore seat belts (even if it is only in cars equipped with such seat belts to begin with).

The longer term dangers of disease are indeed also present and many people think could cause as much deaths as the tsunami itself. Flood water is so dangerous that there is a saying among emergency responders in the US that in case of floods you ``run from the water`` (since flood water comes loaded with bacteria) and in case of hurricanes and tornadoes you ``hide from the wind``. Something to remember if one is ever stuck in such a situation, heaven forbid.

rsridhar #15 Good to hear from you. I am sorry to learn of the personal tragedies that occurred in your father`s neighborhood, and trust that your loved ones are safe. As for Sinhalese stopping aid to Tamil areas in sri lanka, that is indeed incredibly bloody-minded on the part of the individuals who did it - I am certain the average Sinhalese would, like any normal human being, be sufficiently appalled by this tragedy to put aside any bitternesses and hatreds.

I do recall listening in the news about how there has been an unofficial ceasefire in civil wars that were being fought in both sri lanka and in aceh (indonesia). Surely, only a totally mad individual would think of carrying out a civil war in the face of such a terrible tragedy (i understand a quarter of the population of aceh has been killed - and i saw videos of the sea flowing into aceh that seem to be a vision of a watery hell).

Ferozk #13 It is indeed human nature to soon forget about such tragedies and to move on. What we as individuals can do, though, is to not forget the LESSONS of such tragic events which of course is that life on earth has a fragile existence. The political issues that seem so important to us when reading the daily newspapers, do not amount to a hill of beans - to use the expression made famous by the movie “Casablanca” ;-)

First of all, may God give the victims of tsunami strength to put their lives back together. This a tragedy of monumental magnitude. It is beyond belief how all of a sudden the lives of millions could be so utterly devastated in a few minutes!

Since author has dragged Bin Laden into his essay, its worth pointing out that the day tsunami struck, 127 Iraqis died throughout Iraq - adding to the 120,000 who have died so far in this state sponsored terroristic massacre supported by author.

Every single life is a precious life. It was so heart felt to see millions of people across the globe join hands and oppose the massacre of Iraqis. And it is so heart warming to see humanity coming together and doing their best to help out the victims of tsunami.

Despite its murderous streak, my faith in humanity is anew. We may fight each other in ``good times`` but we all come together when tragedy occurs regardless of national, religious and political leanings. It maybe a naive thought, but its a beautiful thought.

Ferozk - thank you for a beautiful post.

India says , thanks ..but no , thanks... >>

India rejects foreign aid for deadly tsunami relief work

Wed Dec 29, 4:28 AM ET South Asia - AFP

yahoo news

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India has turned down foreign aid as it has ``adequate resources`` to provide relief to victims of a deadly tsunami that killed tens of thousands of Asians, a government official said.


India has been flooded with ``generous offers of aid`` from countries like Russia, the United States, Israel and Japan, said the official who did not want to be named.


``In fact, all friendly nations have offered help but we feel we do have the resources to handle the situation. If at a later stage we feel we need assistance we will not hesitate to ask,`` said the source on Wednesday.


``Right now we not only have adequate resources but have gone out and mounted a huge relief effort for Sri Lanka and Maldives. We could not have done this if we were facing a problem in Indian relief operations.``


The Indian government has sent warships, helicopters and aircraft to distribute food, medicines and blankets to neighbouring Sri Lanka and the Maldives and has promised over 23 million dollars in monetary aid.

The official noted that India had not taken up the offers of help as Sunday`s disaster was not of ``the magnitude`` of a brutal earthquake that struck the western Indian state of Gujarat in January 2001 killing 20,000 people.


``This disaster is just not of the same scale or magnitude of the Gujarat earthquake. In comparison to the Gujarat earthquake we have the resources to handle the situation at this juncture,`` he said.

re:#41 by avenger
Let us not bring hatred to this forum. This forum is about tragedy unleashed by nature. Pakistan or any other nation is not above such tragedies in future.
India has a huge landmass and can withstand the fury of nature but consider this:
1. Nicobar Islands, including an IAF station at Car Nicobar, are completely devasted. The south most point called Indira Point, is off the map.
2. Thousands in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago are unaccounted for.
The first earthquake struck the Indonesian coast at ~6:30 am. Tsunami struck India at ~ 8:00 am. Could something have been done if India had a good warning system? I am sure thousands could have been warned in advance and lives saved.
India woefully lacks expertise in disaster management. This was evident from the Gujarat earthquake that killed 20000 people. It is again being obvious now during this disaster.
Sridhar

my thoughts for what it is worth

It is one of those weird disasters where people living, working or playing within 500 feet of the ocean were killed. I know friends and relatives who live 1 mile inland in some of the areas that were badly affected. Nothing happened to them. They were oblivious of what happened. I was able to make a phone call within a hour of the first news reports. Everything seemed fine. Due to the socialist and anti-business mentality of the Indian government there has been no large scale development of the coastal areas for tourism or upper middle class ocean front living. Otherwise it is safe to say the toll would be much higher.

re:#37 by tahmed32
Thanks for your post addressed to me.
Sridhar

Tauheed Ahmed

Sad tragedy. Thanks for writing on the subject.

(US has allocated $ 10 million in aid. It is spending $ 1 billion a week in Iraq)

nhk

Americans knew that a wave of death was on its way to Thailand, India, Maldiv, and Somalia but motherfukkers chose not to warn anyone.



Comparative imagery overview of Kalutara area pre- and post-tsunami on the Southwestern Coast of Sri Lanka.



Comparative imagery overview of Kalutara coastal area pre- and post-tsunami.

#45 by nazarhayatkhan on December 29, 2004 8:03pm PT

``(US has allocated $ 10 million in aid. It is spending $ 1 billion a week in Iraq)``

Twisted priorities....

Anil

avenger and malik99,

.......... why don`t you guys get together and screw each other untill you drop dead !........ even though i am not a believer, i am inclined to believe that this tsunami was divine retribution for guys like you ..............

Commercialization of Tsunamis

Just check out how people can commercialize a disaster ... damn it.

www.tsunamis.org

hamidm # 47 writes ``even though i am not a believer, i am inclined to believe that this tsunami was divine retribution for guys like you``

hamid sahib - how could it be a retribution for me? if any thing, $10 million worth of US aid will be deducted from the $1 billion weekly spending in Iraq. That would cause US govt to cut down on the nightly patrols in Baghdad; which would allow increased insurgent activity. This increased insurgency would result in even higher weekly spending in future.

All this would ultimately result in you not getting your tax cuts that you had so prostituted yourself for. Talk about double whammy!

Hope that clarifies for you. But don`t hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

#46:

you must be a conspiracy buff...here is one more for you...

there was a cyclone in the bay of bengal in 1970...or 1969...many died...

the east pakistanis accused the west pakistanis of sitting on the information and not informing them of the impending cyclone

rgds

t

Actually, the reaction to the deaths through this tsunami and the other deaths occuring in the world, does bring into light people`s attitude towards death and killing.

Canada is sending $40 million. And people around me at work, as well as the DJs on the radio are collecting money. The attitude here on all kinds of deaths is about the same.

The USA has killed approximately the same number of people (100,000 +/-) in Iraq, as the number of people killed by the tsunami. Yet there are so many people in the USA who actually support the former killings and deaths and have even cheered them on (including, ironically, the author of this article, himself).

I think this brings up a basic question about the deaths of people: are there any kinds of dead people people which are, ``less dead`` than others? If the 20,000 + Sri Lankans had been working in Iraq, and been killed there as, ``collateral damage,`` would they have been, ``less dead`` than had they been killed by the tsunami?

I think too many people are more than happy to justify and encourage, and even hide the deaths of others, if their own nation is involved. Yet they are sympathetic if their own nation is not involved. Perhaps, it is about time a dead person started getting treated like a dead person, regardless of who killed him. I wonder how many of the repliers to this article would be more than happy to push the facts under the carpet, if their own country had been, in some way, involved in causing the deaths?

its absolutely silly to say that the us is spending only 35 mill. in all past disasters, us has always spent the most (maybe not comensurate with per capita gdp). for a heavily indebted nation like the US, it would have spent over 1billion for this disaster.

then to that you add all the technological backbone developement engine (satellites, remote sensing, water makinng, medicine, comupter and software technology, transportation including the PAF C130) which is facilitated by the idea and place that is the US..that is priceless. i mean, what can an elephant god temple or a camel caravan with few dates have to offer this worlds future?

so cut it out, have some respect and balance in your arguments.

Urstruly #46

`` Americans knew that a wave of death was on its way to Thailand, India, Maldiv, and Somalia but motherfukkers chose not to warn anyone. ``

Your hatred for America blinds you from reality. The truth is that India has never experienced tsunamis. Even if America had warned Indian government in Delhi there is no means to alert hundreds of villages along the Indian coast. Even if you alerted every Indian coastal village the odds of individuals listening to government alert are low.

Romair # 52
The death toll from American military action is more like 40,000. This includes combatants.

nhk #45 Thanks for your comments. The US is I think given far less credit with respect to international development generally, as well as to this specific case, than it deserves. Thus, e.g., last year the US contributed $2.5 billion in terms of official foreign aid which I grant you is a very small share of its GNP. However, $6 billion was given from the US in the form of non-official aid. PLUS (as I recall reading somewhere last year) about $30 billion a year goes as remittances from earnings in the US by immigrants. And Bush does seem to be taking a more proactive stance here - including putting together a new kind of a coalition that includes China, India, Russia and other nations to help coordinate salvage efforts.

bbabu #43 Thanks for providing a first hand perspective and an insight on why the death toll and destruction was not higher in India than the already appalling numbers. I am glad that you and your family are safe.

avenger (aka gujjubania aka shamsul aka saint): For once I will agree with you that you should be pleased that the Indian government does not feel the need for external help. You and your kind are welcome to keep viewing pakistanis as india`s enemies - that is not a problem for us pakistanis, and you can stew in your own juices (be sure to add some salt and laal mirch).

malik #35 you write ``We may fight each other in ``good times`` but we all come together when tragedy occurs regardless of national, religious and political leanings.`` At last there is something you and I can agree on!!

btw, I did not drag ben laden into this. he dragged himself in by making his fatuous remarks the same day that this tragedy occurred. Just as I did not drag in the fatuous meeting on kashmir of the india-pakistan governments. That too was the only other major news item (on the regional south asian news) that occurred that day. This glimpse of the larger reality showed once and for all the petty nature of most political issues.

temporal #34 yeh naacheeze itny ziaadaa taareef kay kaabil nahiN. :-) The article may have prompted you to put down something on paper concerning the tsunami as well - but the inspiration that caused you to write those beautiful verses in the ilog clearly came from your heart.

Murtaza #33 On the ocean floor being raised: at this time the exact dimensions are estimates only based on the recorded magnitude of the quake and so forth. It would take time to mount an actual undersea expedition to take measurements, and in any case I am sure the place would be too unstable and therefore dangerous at this time anyway. What does seem certain is that the floor was raised - and this was the result of the segment of the earth`s crust known as the India plate being pushed under the segment known as the Burma plate. These forces are powerful enough that raising of the floor by 60 feet should not be surprising - after all, the mighty himalayas that go a mile high were at one time the bottom of an ocean. And the evidence includes fossils of ancient sea creatures in these mountains.

On the Quranic verse I mentioned, but I do recall it as referring to ALL mankind being susceptible to replacement (which can thus only be by another species), not just one tribe with another.

Glad we agree on the basic premise of the article which, as you put it, is that ``our selfishness and preoccupation with our lives can lead us to forget the bigger picture. ``

Inquirer #30 I believe the US is trying to put together a new kind of a ``coalition of the willing``, which would include India and China. It would indeed be a hopeful sign if, instead of wasting lives and resources fighting one another, the armed forces of the nations of the world were to join hands in doing something worthwhile.

As for the saying you mention, ````God, give me the courage to change what I can, the humility to accept what I can not, and the wisdom to see the difference.``, that is indeed one worth remembering. Another way this has been put is that ``things you cant change are by definition not problems - they are conditions``. You focus on problems (things you can change) rather than conditions (things you cannot).

Thus, under this philosophy, instead of trying to change the world (that being a condition), one would focus on simple things like organizing our communities, keeping neighborhoods clean and secure (that being something one can change, and therefore a problem).

nasah #20 I agree that contributions should be made to well-known large organizations like Oxfam and Care, and smaller ones only if you are personally familiar with them.

Mine will be a POLITICALLY Incorrect comment ....
The Other day.... the Maulana of our Mosque after....`` Making a Special Dua for the tsumani victims... commented.... Had any one Noticed....these are the areas where.
Sex-Trade was an industry.....``

... I dont much about these areas.....But I wondered..........
For Me More than 100,000 Lives.... !!!.... I mean the scale is simply awesome...

..... And I have another observation.... before going to my work place....on the 27th December.... when the news broke in.... I was alternating between bbc and CNN....for the latest updates.....and during that One hour...
BBC was always on the News.... related to tsumani...
where as CNN ... it gave about 3 minutes to tsumani..... more that 10 minutes to some Sportsman who died.... I think he was some Basket Ball player.....and then they were constantly on ......How their travellers lost their baggage during this winter holiday seasons...... plus the usual... economic indexes.....

Mind you these were my observations at about 9 am to 10 am on 27 Dec 2004...
The situation does have changed after that.... especailly after Mr Bush has announced to give out some peanuts.... in the Name of relief.

Jang in #54
U`r talkin like the Shrub when he sez - we`r redeploying our aircraft carriers & that costs money. The measure of help is not how much u spend but what it means 2 the victims. When we can spend 200 billion dollars 2 democratize a country we surely cud spend a good fraction of that helping people & making friends?
USAid came up with a phoney figure & said we have given 30% of all aid. But that includes ``aid`` given 2 Iraq - a country we destroyed in the 1st place. Lets make friends by being good citizens.

re tahmed32 #63:

Would you like to venture a guess as to the percentage of US budget that goes towards foreign aid? And if you are really adventurous compare that with the EU?

later
-sac

I also noticed the minimal coverage given to Tsunami while the other channels were right on the spot here. That has always been the problem with local channels in USA and I thought it may have been due to majority of the anchormen on christmas vacation ( if you notice wolf lou dobb and the rest are still off )..ofcourse that is no excuse for big news channels..

Countries like Thailand and others with great tourist income could have eaisly afforded the warning mechanism and even India. Few less missiles and few less planes and more on safety of its citizens. Yes I would blame the respective countries first.

Now coming the measely US aid. Thats a joke. Bush was on vacation while all that happened and never even made one comment. His spokesman said the President is vacationing. When someobody from UN called them stingy...only then he comes out to defend himself.
Dont forget that the amount of that million or billion of aid sent has a major component going to the governments for political reasons and military and antiterrorist funding and also Isreal is the major recipient of that aid instead of Sudan or Somalia. Let`s not even bring up that aid for crying out loud.

I think Pakistan for once should wake up and smell something and spend some serious money on warning systems. Is duffa Allah nai buchaa lia who knows next time...

As the last waters of the tsunami recede, uncovering the violent deaths of tens of thousands, the time has begun for questions to reverbrate with the reasons for the unpreparedness for the tragedy.

Who was that brillaint scientist who dint know who to alert after knowing of the coming tragedy?
In the olden times, God took all the credits and blame for an act of nature. In this day and age, can even a ferocious act of nature not match the numbers maimed and killed by a religious fanatic called Bush, in one country?

In the good old days, there was a moral to every tragedy. What moral is there to this one?

........ and the American President is on vacation till the 3rd Jan 2005....


Maybe he is collecting peanuts.....to distribute....

< a href=http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Debt/USAid.asp> some numbers here

Interesting affect on world markets:

``Booming markets shed few tears
By James Arnold
BBC News business reporter

Clearing up after disasters can help stimulate an economy
The market, former British government minister Michael Heseltine once said, has no morality.

And indeed, stock exchange traders around Asia have wasted little time regretting the victims of this week`s disaster.

Stock markets in Indonesia and India have hit all-time highs this week; even in Sri Lanka, more comprehensively affected, the main index has lost only 5% since the waves hit.

Bigger markets further afield have barely twitched. The MSCI World share index, a measure of global stock market performance, hit its highest level this week since early 2001; the BBC Global 30 has risen by 3% in the past week.

And this at a time when - all sentiment aside - insurance costs are already estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, and countries around the region are looking at trimming their growth forecasts.

Miscounting the cost

In fact, the markets are being perfectly rational.

For a start, the notional insurance cost of the disaster will have little bearing on corporate bottom lines.

The overwhelming majority of the victims will have had no insurance: according to estimates from India, only one-quarter of those affected there were wealthy enough to afford insurance, and only one-quarter of that group at most will have taken out policies. Indonesia is likely to have even lower take-up rates.

And where insurance certainly is in place - in, for example, the many tourist complexes affected - the costs will be borne in far-away corners of the global reinsurance market, rather than landing locally.

Different strokes

Second, stock markets do not trade the sort of companies likely to have been damaged.

Most of the biggest companies traded on the soaring Jakarta Stock Exchange are in oil, technology and financial services - none of which have been hit by the flooding. Tourist businesses, the most likely sufferers, are either foreign-owned or too small to have their shares listed.

Those that are listed have suffered: Confifi Hotel Holdings, a small Sri Lankan tourism firm, has halved in value this week.`` (www.bbc.co.uk)

I agree with Raka. I think US should stop funding the Pakistani gov`t and basically the economy, which is being cannibalized by the generalissmos for new planes and missiles and instead divert the $3B or so earmarked over the next few years towards the relief effort. That will be the right thing to do indeed.

some facts from this website :

some numbers

Hats off for the American people :

( from the same website : cut and paste )

However, even though the charts above do show U.S. aid to be poor (in percentage terms) compared to the rest, the generosity of the people of America is far more impressive than their government. As discussed further below, the government spending has tied agendas that has often been detrimental to the recipient. Private aid/donation in contrast has been through charity on individual people and organizations though this of course can be weighted to certain interests and areas. Nonetheless, it is interesting to note for example, per latest estimates, Americans privately give at least $34 billion overseas -- more than three times U.S. official foreign aid of $10 billion:

International giving by U.S. foundations totals $1.5 billion per year
Charitable giving by U.S. businesses now comes to at least $2.8 billion annually
American NGOs gave over $6.6 billion in grants, goods and volunteers.
Religious overseas ministries contribute $3.4 billion, including health care, literacy training, relief and development.
$1.3 billion by U.S. colleges are given in scholarships to foreign students
Personal remittances from the U.S. to developing countries came to $18 billion in 2000
Source: Dr. Carol Aderman, Aid and Comfort, Tech Central

Romair #52 While you are welcome to your views, you are not welcome to twist logic and facts or to make up your own facts. In this case, you falsely claim that I am cheering on the killing of people in Iraq. I assume this twisting of facts (or lying, to put it accurately) comes naturally to you, and is not something you learnt at the PMA. Although I think you have disgraced that army uniform already (as have some better known military officers, I may add) when you broke immigration laws of the US and tried to stay here illegally until forced to leave. All I can say is that there are many honorable men who also once wore the Pakistan Army uniform, and who would never play fast and lose with the facts the way you do (nor, I may add, consider themselves above the law and the constitution of Pakistan as some of the abovementioned better known officers have done).

If you wish to disprove that you are lying, I suggest you cut and paste from that article I wrote before the Iraq war or anywhere else I have ever written and show exactly where I am cheering the killing of people.

And this is the Jama`aat and the Masjid : The Fundamentalists, the Mullahs, the fanatics.

For the lapdogs of the US thugs, brought up in the Kennel Colonies of Pak army and who consider it a ``kufr`` to yelp a single tiaoooon to condemn their masters.

The jingle of an American Lap-puppy:
``Happy Happy is me now, I`m an Abdool-Amreeka
See my tail is all-a-wagging & lifted for his plaayyaa*
I lick his boots & then shine it with my own slurpy tongue
It`s the muslim & his mullah who puts bhung in my rUng``

* pleasure`` : The way Ba Ba Blacksheep, from cantonements, pronounce when in
missionary position!

Whoever sees himself in this mirror will soon bark and yelp.

---

Mosque works overtime to take care of Hindu, Christian fisherfolk
Indian Express: December 30, 2004

RAJEEV P I

Posted online: Thursday, December 30, 2004 at 0255 hours IST

CUDDALORE, DECEMBER 29: Rahmatullah is a tired man. He and his nephew have just returned to their masjid after burying an unknown Christian man, identifiable by the black thread with the little cross around the neck. They had not forgotten to put a makeshift bamboo cross on the burial mound.

He now needs to take the infant daughter of Shivakumar, both staying in the masjid, to the doctor. ‘‘Maaf karna, kaam bahut pada hai. Hamara president Younus saab se baath keejiye,’’ he says in Hindi, before going out.

In Cuddalore, the second hardest-hit town in Tamil Nadu when the killer waves came, a masjid and the local jamaat have emerged as the rallying point for thousands of fisherfolk—almost all of them Hindus and Christians. There are hardly any Muslim fishermen in Cuddalore, and most of the local Muslims are either traders—which explains the Hindi—or have NRI sons in the Gulf. There have been no Muslim casualties.

‘‘We came to know when people came running to the masjid, minutes after it happened. We decided to do what we could do,’’ says Mohammed Younus, president of the United Islamic Jamaat. ‘‘Isme kya badi baath hai?’’ he asks.

The administration is grateful. Says District Collector Gagandeep Singh Bedi: ‘‘They have been doing wonderful work, I was with them the whole last night.’’ Once the relief and rescue work is over, Bedi plans to write to the state government about their work.

Within minutes of the tsunami striking Pudukuppam, Samayarpettah, Chinnoor and other little villages along the Cuddalore coast on Sunday morning, Younus had summoned his flock. Within half an hour, his men had left their shops and homes for the beaches in their goods vans, cars, two-wheelers and cycles, picking up and rushing the injured to hospitals.

By noon the Jamaat on its own had organised milk for a few hundred babies, and food for over 3,000 survivors. By evening, about 3,000 Muslim men were tending to over 10,000 Hindus and Christians in makeshift camps in the local schools.

A few hundred of the survivors were invited to stay in the masjid, where they still stay. Many more are in the Jamaat’s school, and dozens occupy its office building.

For the last three days, the Jamaat has employed 24 cooks working round the clock to feed about 9,000-odd survivors. Some in the relief camps and others in the five battered villages. The administration provides the rice and milk, and the Jamaat buys the vegetables and everything else on its own. There are about 20,000 men under the Jamaat, and the huge community kitchens that it had been using for its frequent community feasts were immediately turned into relief kitchens.

As the bodies began piling up, Younus asked his men not to hesitate. And, for the last three days, they have been doing what might be unthinkable for many Muslims: carrying bodies on their own shoulders and cremating them. ‘‘To the possible extent, we have been making sure that the Hindu bodies are burnt, and Christians are buried. They should not feel offended in death,’’ Younus reasons.

Younus says he hadn’t slept or eaten well after the tragedy stuck. He has been running around five villages guiding his men, looking after the survivors, making things work.

It was only when the Army moved in yesterday to Pudukuppam, which suffered the heaviest toll, that the Jamaat withdrew from that village. But for the other four, it is still the only solace. ‘‘It’s all God’s will. Inshallah, they will all begin life well in a few weeks,’’ he says.

Younus says none of his over 3,000 men will leave until the survivors are back on their feet. ‘‘We will continue to raise money to feed them for as long as they need. They are welcome to be with us as long as they want,’’ Younus says.

This is not to invoke a south asian contest.

What has happened to the Indian Power Reactor in Chennai, the fast breeder reactor and military facilities in Nicobar etc. Is it because India does not want the world to know that it refuses international assistance, or does it run counter to her great power status.

Just and inquiry
Cheerios

chaltahai,
sarcasm noted but yes I agree if the funding to Pakistan had been for education, vaccinations , clean drinking water, health issues , I would have been all for the US aid. But if you notice all the funding is there after 9/11 ( previously we were on sanctions if you remember ), mainly for antiterrorist and strategic help...

We can do with less missiles and so can you.

aid is used by many donor (not all) to control interest they have in their previous colonies, and that is why EU aid is much higher. EU stated like france still regard west africa as their raj. americans pretty much focused on giving aid to israel, egypt, jordan and pakistan. and then the great marshal plan and post-ww help to korea, japan, thailand etc..

Rakaposh :``Countries like Thailand and others with great tourist income could have eaisly afforded the warning mechanism and even India. Few less missiles and few less planes and more on safety of its citizens. ``

First of all , India has like more money than Thailand and others ..to say the least.

Secondly , India has some excellent world class early warning satellite systems but they are geared towards predicting cyclones , mansoons and watching out for signs of river flooding . Unfortunately , there was never one for prediction of a tsunami as tsunamis have NEVER struck India before this. Henceforth an appropriate mechanism will be put in place.

Lastly , even the nastiest natural calamity can at best take away a few thousand lives. Knowing the nature of the neibourhood that Indians live in , failure to invest adequetely in planes and missiles could easily compromise the safety and freedom of a few hundred million....thanks for the concern and advise anyway.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Ijaz Gul ,

Sadly for you , the reactor is safe. Military facilities are in shape too. Thanks for your interest.

sac #68 I agree that in percentage terms the US official aid is much less than what EU contributes, and indeed would support the target of 1% of the GNP that was once set for foreign aid many years ago.

However, it is important to keep in mind that foreign aid is only a means to an end, the end being peace and progress for ALL humanity. Keeping this in mind, I would say the following:

1. As I mentioned earlier, while official aid from the US is low, unofficial aid from the US is twice the amount and workers remittances from the US are several times the amount of official aid - thus, in total (as I said earlier, and those figures seem to cross-check with what Raka also indicates) funds flowing from the US to developing countries is about $35 billion (or more than 10 times the official aid).

2. Official aid is a mixed blessing. See chaltahai`s post #72 for example - and I would agree that Pakistan doesnt need F-16s. It needs peace. And peace is best obtained by settling differences. Like MasterCard, while F-16`s are expensive, peace is priceless. And doesnt require foreign aid. Only requires a responsible government that looks for the interest of Pakistanis, not of itself.

3. Official aid is one of the poorest ways to promote peace and progress, imho. There are two far better ways, as follows:

i. More trade (by eliminating trade barriers, as being going to happen in just a couple of days for textiles as a result of the WTO agreement) is a far, far better way - it not only eliminates this giver-taker relationship and replaces it with one of equal partners (a far better arrangement for both parties), it also provides the foundation for long term prosperity. The US has played a leading role in the elimination of trade barriers.

ii. Offshoring: Again, technologies created in the US, and policies of the US government, have played a leading role in the offshoring boom.

I rest my case. :-)

re tAhmed#81:

The US contributes less than one quarter of one percentage point of its budget to foreign aid. And it contributes less than half the development aid contributed by the EU.
Whether these numbers are justified or not is upto personal viewpoints. I just marvel at the hypocricy when European countries are chided for not paying their ``share`` of reconstruction aid required for Afghanistan or when they are derided for not forgiving Iraq`s debts owed to them.
The sheer audacity with with Powell and Bush tried to contradict the UN official`s statement speaks volumes about the moral bankruptcy of the ruling elite in this country.

later
-sac

rakaposh sahiba - its good to see you interacting. you write well and from heart. hope to see you more often on these boards, if possible.

............ it takes a rare breed to turn a human tragedy into a tamasha ......... years ago, i remember an accident on murree road when a taxi knocked over an old woman ........... while the woman lay in the middle of the road moaning and groaning, the crowd busied itself mercilessly beating the taxi driver ......... the poor taxi driver, with his clothes tattered and bleeding from the head and nose, begged for mercy but the crowd was in no mood to listen .............

echoboom#77

Thanks for posting that message. It does more for the image of islam than the many long articles you publish from obscure sources. It shows the humane and compassionate image of islam. It is also heartwarming that the news is getting a wide coverage in the Indian mainstream media, which counters the image of Indian muslims spread by the Togadias and Singals, etc. Ironically, I got this also in the email from two people who I know are BJP supporters.

dost-mittar:

In love of India what is it that you wouldn`t do.
The emphasis here, buzurgjee, is as the headline says:
And this is the Jama`aat and the Masjid : The Fundamentalists, the Mullahs, the fanatics.

India is just the backdrop. An incidental here.

Islam & muslims will ALWAY be a priority in my posts. Nothing gets ``embedded`` here. So either read or move on.Nothing is a `lead-on here as some charlatans try to package their `articles` [feature-writer types:anglicised scum] here. The most Zaleel person on earth is a munafique . It is a muslim`s sacred duty to un-earth a munafique from amongst the fold. A clear kafir like yourself is respected and acknowledged as such in under Muslim Law, but a munafique (hidden murtid) should always expect lightening retributions from fellow muslims. Sleeper-cell `tolerance` are a no no in ANY honourable society.

Always always retain THIS & THIS perspective in mind when talking to a muslim. There is nothing obscure here. [This is, sorry to say, secular westernised trash-talk. Won`t work with me].

What does dost-mittar mean here? Echoboom ? blah blah blah. Are these not obscure sources? This word shows contempt towards Islam & religion in general. It gives one away. It is a SECULARISTS & ATHEISTs word.Please just go by CONTENTS & content alone and if possible DO try to get influenced by the contents--that is why they get posted here.

Unfortunately you belong to baboo-generation & some remnants of that I see in the Indo-Pakis of today as well(caste-curse I presume). It is the paper-pushing jobbery mentality which are the diseases of having contacted ``Universitisis`` [ University ``higher`` education which turns `free` people into `working-class` types ( ever noticed the contempt in this phrase by the `white-collared` ones, who never realised that they themselves are really the slogging & sweating class who only recently found the `value` of unionism & associationism)

It is only Professors of the ``gheto`` subjects[like sociology, pol-sci, econmics , psychology, Lit-leechuRR and other such societal-manipulating (``black-magic``: sorcery--the religion of paganism secularism) who need ibids & et als. The wretched ones have to earn a living. Those whop do not need anyones ``approval`` ``appreciation`` and ``job`` NEVER ever resort to such kind of ``scholarly`` stooping.

It is quite interesting to see different viewpoints here that lead us into the psychology of the interlocutors. Some interlocutors here contend that US should do more to aid the victims of such disasters whereas the apologists are providing statistics to prove that America is benevolent - for some reason these statistics do not rise above the level of the murmur. The underlying truth here, however, is that US is sitting on most of the world resources like a cobra; in their hearts everybody including Americans are convinced of this fact. That is the reason every news channel in US is working over time to convince Americans that they are benevolent. The truth, however, is bitter than that - a time has come that world is not looking for American handouts and its largesse, it wants equity and just distribution of resources. The media can work its magic to only certain extent. In this day and age when a family living in a shanty town in Columbo and a man surfing the web in Pindigheb sees that there is a country out there where even dogs and cats have health insurance and grocery stores that have food sections for animals, which are as big as that for humans he begins to question. When US slaps its $35 mil of largesse in the face of humanity, people question.

Ref nazarhayatkhan #45

[(US has allocated $ 10 million in aid. It is spending $ 1 billion a week in Iraq)]

It was reported that the US offered Rs. 44.5 lakhs to India (the equivalent of US$100,000. No, I am NOT kidding). It seems India turned it down and pointed out that it is capable of managing the tragedy on its own while helping Maldives and Sri Lanka at the same time.

urstruly and echo.

...... i hope you are putting your money where your big mouths are ...... better yet, why don`t you donate all your worldly assets to unicef or the red cross before you strap on your suicide belts ........ you guys are sick !

hamidm #82 I am not sure what point you are addressing here but it certainly an example of the ``dangars`` (as in mawaeshi) in our society.

sac #84 you have ignored the points I made and are simply repeating what your earlier point, which I have accepted as valid, but only a very narrow aspect of the broader picture. How can you move forward in a discussion if you ignore what the other person is saying?

Abdool-Amreekaa:91

(Anybody`s suicide could be a bit risky for you & your fellow bufoons. Do do not wish True Believers something that may eventually end in you getting The Acquired Syndrome--as a punishment from Allah. I`ve seen it happen to secular/atheist types)

Oh merlot-mutt: good yelp!

Until you repent & atone by cursing U.S this jingle will keep on ringing in your ears & haunt you.

``Happy Happy is me now, I`m an Abdool-Amreeka
See my tail is all-a-wagging & lifted for his plaayyaa*
I lick his boots & then shine it with my own slurpy tongue
It`s the muslim & his mullah who puts bhung in my rUng``

P.S: I notice the George Carlin ``humour`` missing. Ready to revert?

Urstruly: Assalaam-alakum yaa braather-in-Islam. yaa muhibbee yaa akhee!