December 26,2004. This clay will be a memorable one for any Asian. In the early morning of that clay, a disastrous tremor named "Tsunami" jolted many Asian countries. It was the deadliest known Tsunami since the 1883 volcanic eruption at Krakatoa off Sumatra's southern tip which killed an estimated 36,000 people. Almost 11 countries across 4,000 miles were being affected by tidal wave due to this colossal calamity. People of all religions had been affected. This powerful tremor went up to Richter Scale 9.0!! Powerful indeed. According to recent statistics,

the death toil might have been over 2 lakh. The tidal wave went 30 ft. over the sea level and submerged adjacent areas. The places were in a festive mood because of Christmas. Many foreigners went to the Islands of Thailand, Indonesia, Andaman and Nikobar to pass their holidays. But alas I The disaster struck. The most affected country was Sri Lanka. Many countries of the world came forward with emergency aid like water, food, medicines etc. But the most amazing thing was that the US opened its mouth after four days of this tragedy. I think US lead-

ers realised a bit late that helping the affected countries could slightly balance their invasion of Iraq. Tsunami affected countries are still in a mourning mood. They arranged nothing special for welcoming the New Year; rather they are working day and night for rehabilitation of the affected people.

We Bangladeshis are selfish. We did nothingasTsunami did not hit us. Rather we celebrated the New Year in a boisterous manner. We expressed our sympathy for the victims only verbally, notfromtheheart.

Gibran Mahmood

Notre Dame College