Enough of Tsunami false hopes

I try not to blog too many times a day. Makes me looks like I am very free like dat. But that front page news keep staring back at me, taunting me. The kind that 'if I don't say something, I need to punch someone's face'.

The front news of The Star show the face of an Indon woman. The title is something like this :
I survived on attap chee - Survivor: Her story is awe-inspiring and incredible.

To many people - it is thrilling to read. To some, they may say 'wah....miracle does happen'. But to me, it is 'Goodness sake, Star, I respect your paper but this time, I feel you are giving false hopes to many who are badly in need of hope.' Now, I am not dimissing the importance of the lone Indon woman. I am not saying that whether she dies or lives, makes no difference. (You have to know me personally to know that I care for the life of all, even unborn fetuses so don't start jumping and getting mad at me, ok? Listen more to understand.)

What I want to say is that a reputable paper like The Star shouldn't make front news of one single survivor when there are 150,000 whom had perished and their bodies still missing. Out of these 150,000 there are millions of loved ones/survivors who are pining for the missing ones. Millions of hearts are aching for the small flicker of hope that somewhere out there in the big ocean, their loved ones are still at sea, alive. Parents all over the world are crying for their missing children. Husbands and wives for their missing spouses. And the tears go on.

So, when we start making a big issue out of this, think what kind of feelings go through these families who have no 'closure'? When a person died, we need 'closure' to carry on. Closure as in seeing the dead body, give proper funeral, cremation/burial and thereafter, some form of memorial keepsakes like a grave or a name in a temple.

Another issue that has been making me uneasy is the kind of attention the father who lost 5 of his children is getting. The poor man has to face a host of politicians, journalists and well-wishers. His home is like an endless open house. Can't we give this man some space, some privacy? I am sure he will feel better being with close knit families, spending his time in prayers, seeking strength from Allah. I am not saying that we shouldn't care and just mind our own business. What I am trying to say is we should learn to be more sensitive to the feelings of others instead of being too pre-occupied in doing things which we alone feel right.

In conclusion - heck, I don't even know what I am trying to say. If too much publicity on the surivors and victims, also wrong. If no publicity on them, people like me and you may forget altogether that there was a tsunami that killed 150,000 people. All I hope is the papers/bloggers/meant-well people/organisations/caring individuals just try to remember what is our real purpose in doing some of the things. Ask ourselves are we doing it for the goodness of others or for the good name of ourselves?