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| Sunday, 2 January 2005 |
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Sea 'boxes in' on Boxing Day by Karel Roberts Ratnaweera "God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform." Whether these words are from the Holy Scripture or from some Tennyson or Wordsworth, this writer, would not know. But the words are appropriate at this time after the raging of the sea elements on the day after Christmas. I am quoting these words in the context of what President Chandrika Kumaratunga told the BBC in an interview on Monday morning - the day after the tidal tragedy, as our sister paper the Daily News had it. President Chandrika Kumaratunga said that she hoped that this catastrophe - what she described as the worst in the history of Sri Lanka -would bring the people of this hate-torn island nation together. What that meant was that she was thinking beyond the war - a war that almost tore our country apart province by province, valley by valley, mountain by mountain, village by village and worse, person by person. It was when I was listening to her interview while going through the hassle of dressing for work, that the words of the Scriptures or the Poet struck me. 'God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform'. I subscribe to no practising form of religion. Husbands and wives, mothers and fathers have been traversing the globe to be with loved-ones at this traditional time of togetherness. We are saying this without being sentimental. But one cannot discount sentiment. It is what life is all about, at the end of the day. A man travels across half the globe to see a grandchild he has never seen since the child's birth two years ago. Just what would have been his thoughts on hearing the news of the devastation in our coastal areas - where they live - in our country? And the news has spread like wildfire in countries as far away as the United States. All the electronic services were agog; the disaster had covered a huge area from South India to the island of Sumatra. We hear of earthquakes in lands that lie in the so-called earthquake belts. Iran only a few days ago had commemorated the first anniversary of a quake that had claimed over 30,000 lives. Iran is in that belt, as are Quetta in Pakistan and certain areas of the Middle East. China and Japan are links in the chain as well, as are parts of North India, New Zealand, Turkey and Greece. One recalls a blockbuster Hollywood epic of some decades ago, which we saw as children - 'The Last Days of Pompeii,' depicting the total annihilatation of the Italian city during the eruption of Mount Etna. We knew about such things through the medium of cinema and books. But no one took the trouble to think of the devastation caused by the shifting of tectonic plates under the sea. We saw, quite recently the film 'Krakatoa', when tidal waves swept over the whole island. It is said that the blast of a volcano of the same name, in the East Indies, was even heard by British tea planters on some of our higher-elevation tea estates! It was only day before Christmas at a routine Editorial meeting in the Sunday Observer Newsroom where editorial matters were being discussed but with a lot of Christmas banter 'obligato. 'There was lots of talk about a white Christmas. Something made this writer say it might turn out to be a black Christmas! I cant think of anything in particular that made me say such a thing, but the Editor glanced in my direction. Christmas Day escaped the blackness, but it was Boxing Day that 'conducted' the horrendous unheard of music of the sea. The sea has inspired great composers and artists. It inspired a well-known composer to write a Sea symphony. A lot of music has been written about the sea by many composers. The one this writer likes best is a love song entitled 'Le Mer...(the sea) which first hit the charts a couple of decades ago. |
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