The numbers are staggering, beyond comprehension. They increase daily in increments of ten or twenty thousand.
Even the three thousand on September 11 were not comprehensible, even reading their capsule biographies individually, slowly each day in the New York Times, over a period of months — so many, each name a world, each connected to a world, destroyed in an instant, with the living left to cope for years, without comprehension.
And in Asia, it is 20 times that number –so far.
Norman Geras has a discussion of the theological and moral issues and scientific concerns, but he ends in the right place, beyond them:
Beyond both theology and the science of earthquakes or of early warning systems, there is something enduring here about the human condition in the face of calamity:
"My house collapsed and I had my daughter’s hand in mine as we ran back from the water. . . But the wave took her from my hands."
. . . .
"He was sitting by the street and suddenly the water came. . . I looked back and he was gone."
. . . .
"I don’t have a sari to change into. I have nothing to eat. . . We lost everything. . ."Everyone understands the meaning of these terrible stories. Theology and philosophy and science have their place, and so does ordinary human experience.
It is pointless, or beyond the point, to try to comprehend why. One can only go here or here and contribute money, to help build an ark for those who have survived.