it’s been more than two weeks after the earthquake.
i have started teaching this week. despite teaching in a tent for every storied building at my uni is either completely flattened to the ground or not safe to use, i am glad everything is getting back to normalcy.well, what i mean is i m back at work and my students are back in class……..err…..tent.
yeah padang has started to move on with life. you could see school kids going to school or petty traders going to the markets to keep the economy going. padang is never a beautiful city (compared to my beloved bukittinggi) but i can’t deny that the scene of the survivors trying to get on with life amidst rubbles from collapsed buildings is really beautiful.
but the notion of “life is getting back to normalcy” does not mean that everything is OK for me and the rest of us in padang and other affected areas. technically, i am and many others are homeless in padang. for some of those who are lucky enough for their homes are still there proudly standing, they still need to deal with no supplies of clean water and electricity. you know what happened to me? i slept at my friend’s house but i took a bath at my s00n-to-be-former-land lady’s place and shat at my other friend’s office and charged my handphone at my uni. i am a complete nomad then. and yeah life is a lot easier when m at uni since it still retains some little traces of civilization where i can still pretend that everything is nearly okay for i do not need to worry much when the nature calls.
but still, it’s beautiful to be alive. yes we have no homes, no school buildings, no shopping malls, no hotels, no hospitals because they have been decimated by the nature but we need to live-to stay alive. if the spirit is still there, building all those which have gone is just a piece of cake.
but with all those stupid rumors that in other few months there will be another big earthquake for a particular seismic plate near mentawai has not reached its stabil point yet, how to waive that feeling of insecurity?
some students of mine even have planed to move out from padang and try their luck in other place in indonesia. i heard that some students even decided to quit university and live a peaceful life back in their kampung for fear of earthquake and tsunami. a friend of mine begged to her boss to be transferred to other city.
everybody seems to want to leave. but i personally thing that’s not the best thing to do. where are you going to run when it comes to disaster? two weeks ago it might be padang’s turn to get hit. tomorrow it might be new york or honolulu or leiden or beijing. we will never know, will we? so, what we can do now is be alive and do something.
i think my government should really seriously think about investing some money in disaster education or prevention or stuff like that. for disaster prone area like my place (we’ve got volcanoes, rivers, shores, valleys. hills, swamps) people need to be educated about the a-to-z-of any kind of disaster we might have. i think we should also begin thinking about inventing technology to prevent some disasters and to, at least, minimize the destruction and casualties for disasters like earthquake and tsunami. i think it’s a better thing to do than policing the people’s moral like the government of padang or west sumatra in general were busy doing (experts said padang is completely unprepared for earthquake and tsunami).
yeah they told me some shits like the earthquake flattened ambacang hotel since it’s a place of immorality for the rescuers found some naked bodies in the decimated rooms; padang was hit badly because the people were lazy to pay zakat. so what you need to do is to be more pious or stand the wrath of god!
i just cringed to that stupid idea. it is an analysis of a complete lazy mind. however, in the society m living in, to dismiss that notion of god’s involvement in disasters is also equally stupid (people will label you “secular, westernernized, atheist……”) . so i said:
“yeah god is mad at you by giving you flood since you keep cutting the trees in the forest. god is getting emotional by sending you a killer tsunami and destroy your city because you destroy mangrove are near your shores. god is crazy to see your greed in poorly constructed buildings so a mild tremor could be dangerous.”
i hope i do not sound stupid either.
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October 17, 2009 at 11:43 am
colson
A very clever post. It caused me to have mixed feelings.
My foremost thought is: how admiringly courageous is the perseverance of the Padang people. It is sheer vitality and a great talent for improvisation which is carrying them through. Essentially on their own they cope with the fall out of the earthquakes and to a large part they manage to succeed.
This exemplary behavior is at odds however with the saddening opinion of those ( only a few I hope) who think disasters like this are punishments by God. The solutions will not come from above or from elsewhere. You are right; it is much more likely a strong government ( “strong” means legitimate, transparent and with a broad social basis to secure sufficient income/tax and provide adequate public services), a strong administration, indeed is what is needed.
Being a “secular, westernernized, atheist……” like me, who has lived pretty much safe and protected ever since WWII (the big flooding of ‘53 didn’t affect me or my family, either), the Padang-situation provoked a weird sense of guilt. It’s the seemingly inevitability of inequality which is so uncomfortable: “Padang” made me realize once more that some have to live through series of devastating calamities , while others ( me) always seem to have all the luck of the world.
A small donation in money didn’t silence my conscience.
October 17, 2009 at 1:38 pm
delvi
living in the ring of fire is really fantastic! you see many deadly shows in your life time. yeah its either leave or live with it! i never regret being born here but we need to be real smart to survive. thank you colson for your concern. we’ll greatly apreciate it.