I’ll be spending this weekend rather alone, since most of the Singaporean students have return home for the new year, I can’t because I have two mid term exam snext week, and I can’t afford to waste time. Well, my Ratu and Romo are ok with it. I’m quite sad that I couldn’t go home but it’s a sacrifice….

Anyway, today is the last day of the year and 2005 tomorrow!! Time do pass by fast. It really is and so many things had happened in this 2004, for me personally… Hapy things and sad things…Well, I’m not going to go all the way and recall the things that had happened. All I can say is I have learnt a lot this year, not just academically but also emotionally and spiritually. Overall I’m happy with the year and I hope 2005 will bring more hope and achievements.

The world is devastated by the Tsunami which happened last Sunday, caused by an earthquake in Sumatera and claiming lives, thousands of lives in the Asian region countries and even Africa. Most badly hit was Sri Lanka, Banda Aceh and Thailand. It’s a terribly scary disaster. Everyday, I read the newspaper and was deeply affected by the stories of victims and survivors. Pictures of dead bodies, bloated and rigid swept by the huge waves, bodies dumped like garbage and unclaimed. It was terrible. Babies and children dead and lost. These are all the might of Allah and there is something to be learnt from it.

Copied from ChannelNewsasia:

ALL ABOUT TSUNAMIS >>

• Usually caused by a massive earthquake under the sea, tsunamis are in effect a series of travelling ocean waves which can wreak severe destruction on low lying coastal areas.

• According to US geophysicists, the earthquake that unleashed deadly tsunami waves on Asia, was so powerful, it made the earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map.

• According to one expert, it may have moved some of the smaller islands off Sumatra’s coast, by as much as 20 metres and USGS. Expert Ken Hudnut told the AFP news agency, that a 20-metre shift is considered a lot of a slip. He says the north-western tip of the Indonesian territory of Sumatra may also have shifted to the south-west by around 36 metres.

• Another expert at the National Earthquake Information Centre in Golden Colorado, said it was more likely the islands off Sumatra had risen higher out of the sea.

• Tsunami is a Japanese word that translates as “harbour wave”. It is not strictly speaking a “tidal wave” which describes the periodic movement of water associated with the rise and fall of the tides.

• Oceanographers call tsunamis seismic seawaves because they are usually caused by a sudden rise or fall of part of the earth’s crust under or near the ocean. Less powerful tsunami waves can also be triggered by volcanic activity. They are most common in the Pacific Ocean.

• A tsunami is not a single wave, but a series of waves that can travel across the ocean at speeds of more than 800 km (500 miles) an hour. In the deep ocean, hundreds of miles (km) can separate wave crests; many people have lost their lives during tsunamis after returning home thinking the waves had stopped.

• As the tsunami enters the shallows of coastlines in its path, its velocity slows but its height increases. A tsunami that is just a few centimetres or metres high from trough to crest can rear up to heights of 30 to 50 metres as it hits the shore, striking with devastating force.

• For those on shore there is little warning of a tsunami’s approach. The first indication is often a sharp swell, not unlike an ordinary storm swell.

• In 1883, a tsunami following the eruption of Krakatoa volcano between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra killed 36,000. The tsunami’s passage was traced as far away as Panama.

• In July 1998, two undersea quakes measuring 7.0 created three tsunamis that killed at least 2,100 near the town of Aitape on the north coast of Papua New Guinea.

God’s will.