By the time you get to read this article the tidal waves of sympathy and tchk-tchking over the tsunami disaster will have subsided; and life, for the vast majority of us, would have returned to “normal”. Therein lies the real and hidden danger, which this piece seeks to expose. There are many things beyond our grasp and comprehension, which we discuss superficially. What we don’t realise is that several searing thoughts and graphic images recede into our sub-conscious. There they act as a pneuma-psycho-soma-tic cancer, moulding our spiritual and mental attitudes, and even our health.
My time schedule does not permit me the luxury of watching TV, so I didn’t get to see the TV coverage of the havoc wrecked by the tsunami. However, I have carefully studied the reports in various journals, besides the reports sent by SAR correspondents in Tamilnadu and the Andaman Islands. I see three vital questions emerging, that we need to address for the future: 1. Is nature/ God cruel? 2. What can mere mortals do in the face of nature’s fury? Are we humans responsible for it? 3. Does God show favour or partiality to Christians, the “chosen people”?
Let us address the first question – the nature of Nature or God. The great scientist Albert Einstein preferred to refer to God as an orderly and harmonious Nature that did not interfere in human affairs – The Theory of Relativity. In contrast, Christianity is a religion of relationships – God’s relationship with humankind, inter-human relationships, and human relationships with nature, the environment etc. I have re-read an article by Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar that appeared in the Times of India on 2nd January. He bases his article on a book “A Short History of Almost Everything” by Bill Bryson. He quotes several instances of Nature’s fury: that are umpteen times more devastating than anything humans could ever do. For example, in the last 2.5 million years there have been 17 killer Ice Ages, at intervals of 10,000 years. He claims that since industrialisation in 1850, humans have lofted seven billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere every year, but nature belches 30 times more through volcanoes and decaying vegetation. He claims that the volcanic eruption at Krakatoa, Indonesia, in 1883 threw up more particulate matter than all the industrial smoke ever generated! The volcanic eruption at Sumbawa, Indonesia, in 1815 was equivalent to 60,000 Hiroshima bombs, that killed 1,40,000 people. He claims that a super volcano in Yellowstone Park USA explodes periodically every 600,000 years, and the next one is due. It will wipe out human life. Quoting several such instances Aiyar concludes that the real culprit is nature. He says, “Ecologists have created a myth that nature represents a harmonious equilibrium threatened by human excesses”. He grudgingly admits that “humans do indeed pose a threat to nature, but this is nothing compared to the threat that nature poses to humans”.
I am no one to question the statistics quoted by Aiyar or Bryson. The danger is in the conclusions that Aiyar has drawn. It implies that nature is cruel, that humans are helpless, and ecologists are fools. If nature is going to destroy us in any case, why the hullabaloo about manmade catastrophes; be they ecological, environmental, industrial, biological or atomic?
Tilly wasn’t so silly. Tilly Smith of Surrey, England, is a ten-year-old girl, now renamed the “Angel of the Beach”. She was holidaying on the island of Phuket, when she recognised the tsunami symptoms. She recalled what her geography teacher Andrew Kearnay had taught her, that a sudden and swift withdrawal of seawater was an indication of an impending tsunami. She applied her textbook knowledge to a real life situation, and alerted her mother. In turn, the mother trusted the observation of her 10 year old. They raised an alarm, and hundreds on Phuket’s Maikho beach were saved. It was just a matter of ten minutes, between life and death. The story appeared in the same issue of the Times of India as Aiyar’s diatribe, albeit with much less space than given to Aiyar. Ironically, the very same issue carries another story of the Morgan sea gypsies on Surin Island in Thailand. They also read the “signs of the times” and escaped to higher ground before the water gushed in.
There are other stories of migratory birds and wild life, including elephants, evacuating the danger zones, before disaster struck. So, does Aiyar’s “Cruel Nature” give advance signals to those who have their ears to the ground? Does it help the not so silly Tillys? Jesus referred to the signs of the times (Mat 16:1-3). Farmers read nature’s signals. Ants can sense rain. Dogs can sense impending earthquakes. If modern human life styles have lost touch with nature, who is to blame? OK, we can’t go back to living in huts. But we need to take compensatory actions, like disaster warning systems. We can send dirty jokes and porn by phone and email. Did anybody care to warn the others like Tilly did? Why didn’t the high tech defence base at Andamans warn the rest of India? Why weren’t TV and radio messages flashed immediately? Why blame nature? What were the world’s satellites doing? Just beaming Christmas frolic? Shame on us, not blame on God!
This brings us to the second question – What can we mortals do in the face of nature’s perceived fury? As George Menezes wrote to me, the easiest thing that we can do is write a cheque for relief. Does that restore the checks and balances of Einstein’s harmonious nature, while simultaneously relieving our conscience? Of course there is a lot that we can do post facto – by way of relief, reconstruction, rehabilitation, etc. But isn’t prevention better than cure? Can’t we minimise risks, accentuated by human’s devouring greed? Nobody can stop an earthquake – subterranean or submarine. But we can avoid building mega dams or high rises in seismically sensitive zones. We can deploy scientific advancement to give us early warning systems. We can evolve an educational system, which has appropriate and applied knowledge, like Tilly’s; instead of mere academia. The Catholic Church in India boasts of its contribution in the educational field. Does this immense number influence the thrust of education, or is it pathetically just led by the nose?
I am reminded of the strike on the World Trade Centre in New York. It housed thousands of people. The buildings caught fire and collapsed. Yet only 1000 died, several of who were firemen ascending the staircases. A blind man was led down forty storeys by his guide dog. Thousands got out in the few minutes between the strike and the collapse, even though the lifts were not working. How? Because they came down in an orderly manner, keeping to one side of the staircase, while the firemen rushed up on the other side. A respect for law and order minimised the damage. Had that incident been in India the victims of stampede and chaos would have been several times more. So there is indeed much that is in our hands. If only we care. A callous attitude to life, nature and the environment is a recipe for unmitigated disaster. Are you listening Mr. Aiyar?
My first two questions are interlinked. I subscribe to Einstein’s observation of harmony and order in nature. But I do not agree with Aiyar’s conclusions about nature’s fury. It depends on how we look at it. My son regaled us with a joke he read in Indian Currents. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr Watson were camping out. Holmes woke up Watson in the middle of the night, and pointing to the sky, asked his friend what he saw. Watson said that if he were a chronologist he would say it was 3 am. As an astrologer he would say that Jupiter was close to Venus and it was a bad omen. As an astronomer he would marvel at the wonder of God’s creation. “You fool,” said Holmes, “Somebody has stolen our tent”!
Holmes and Aiyar here share a common viewpoint, the ugly side of things. Watson comes closer to Einstein. We can either say that the Yellowstone Super Volcano is going to blow up any moment. Or we can thank God for 600,000 years of tranquillity. Unfortunately, we humans have a penchant for bad news, and blaming the “other”, is this case God or Nature. The tsunami has reinforced such a pessimistic belief. The same thing happened to Europe after two World Wars among so-called “Christian nations”. It shattered people’s faith in God, and resulted in empty churches and a consumerist and hedonist culture. Perhaps, after reading this piece and pondering over it in deep silence, you may have a rethink.
We cannot wish away the forces of nature. But we need also to guard against malicious exploitation of its aftermath. Another writer in the Times of India, Donald McNeil makes a pertinent point. “Disasters rip away social moorings as harshly as they tear children from their mothers’ hands, and while faceless nature may be to blame for the first blow, governments may reap the political whirlwind that follows”. We already have stories of looting and sexual exploitation of women and children. Vultures have disappeared from Indian skies, but they are highly visible on the ground. So there is so very much that each one of us needs to do.
My last point was about God being partial to “chosen people”. At this point I would agree with Einstein that God does not “interfere” in human destiny. I do not believe that an all-loving God loves some, more than others. The famous shrine of Our Lady of Health at Velankanni was at the centre of the destruction in Tamilnadu. Swami Vivekanand’s memorial in Kanyakumari was battered. When soldiers go into battle shoulder-to-shoulder one gets a bullet in his chest, while his neighbour goes unscathed. The soldiers ask each other, “Why him, why not me?” This is a question that neither Einstein, Holmes nor Aiyar can answer.
If life ended with physical death, then it would be gross injustice, and Jesus’ death on the cross would have been the gravest injustice in human history. But the grave is not Jesus’ resting place. As St. Paul wrote, “If our hope in Christ was for this life only, we are of all people the most pitiable” (1 Cor15:19). He continues, “ If the dead are not going to be raised, then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall be dead” (1 Cor 15:34). Paul concludes his expression of faith in the Resurrection with these famous words, “ Death is swallowed up in victory. Death where is your victory? Death where is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:54). It is in the empty tomb that we find all the answers. Let us not grieve inordinately for the dead. Let us care for the living, as Tilly did. Or mouth the old ketchup ad “Lilly, don’t be silly “!
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