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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.
I am alive.
And I am taking shelter in a nice building with electricity and internet connection at day time. Technically I am a refugee since my rented room was completely decimated yesterday afternoon.
Padang is officially isolated from outer access from any possible direction for collapsing bridges and landslides. Thank god now the rain has stopped pouring. Otherwise we will again go helter skelter out of the building hit by the quake and welcome by the rain only to get drenched.
I only stuffed assortments of instant noodles since last nite. No restaurants are opened.
Moreover, fuel has become the new gold just now. Everybody is storming the petrol station and some even spark a minor vendetta fighting to get the remaining fuel left.
I am still trying to reach my brother. He sms-ed my family last nite telling them that he is OK. but the busy or maybe paralysed network has failed me to reach him. Well, at least he is OK. My father planned to pick me up and take me home to Bukittinggi but because of Padang-Bukittingi route is disrupted by a massive landslide in Silaing, near the Epicentrum of this 7.6 magnitude earth quake, I think I will stay in Padang tonight.
I cannot write much at this time but promise to write more later when things have calmed down.
If I get thru this night unscathed, I might be able to post some pics on the latest tremors. (even as a refugee i managed to take several poses near the wreakages of the fallen buildings).
If you want to help these poor victims of this West Sumatera earth Quake, you know how to do it right. What they need most is medicine, food, blanket, clothing, tents, sanitary napkin (the great tremor never succeeds to panic me but my period which suddenly came last night panicked me a real deal. I only had it lastweek anyway that i m wondering why it comes “again” last night).
well see you when i see you folks.
