"THE tragic aftermath of Sun­day's massive earthquake in ,the Indian Ocean is a reminder that the biggest threat to hu­man security is not ourselves, but the environment we live in and for the most part take for granted.
For more than three years now, we in Asia have been in the grip of fear. Not of some earthquake, volcanic eruption or tsunami, but of a small band of Muslim militants who have planted bombs in a ran­dom pattern of violence that has been responsible for a few hundred deaths.
It is ironic that the fear in Phuket and southern Thailand ahead of this year's holiday season was of a terrorist at­tack, not a huge tidal wave.
We should learn something from this and try and recali­brate our fears in order to be­come better prepared to save more lives in the future.
We have sent a lot of money and effort watching our citizens and monitoring human movements and taken for granted the shifting pat­terns of climatic change and seismic activity.
We are more afraid of a shadowy organisation called Jemaah Islamiah and strive to know more about its adher­ents than anything remotely connected with how exposed our coastlines are to the on­slaught of nature."

"Asia has received plenty of offers for help when it comes to security - just the other day Australia's Foreign Minis­ter Alexander Downer was of­fering Thailand troops to help quell a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand.
It is unlikely that Austra­lian troops will be on hand to help clear the beaches and rebuild the towns along the shoreline in Phuket.
Australia’s declared security priority is combating terror – but not the kind of terror perpetrated by nature itself."

Adapted from "Man-made fears vs forces of nature" by Michael Vatikiotis

how true.
May God bless all those affected by the tsunami
Happy 2005