zenn bites...

the death toll for the south asia killer quake keeps rising, from an early estimate of 18,000 to the latest 40,000.

the chances of pulling survivors out from under all that rubble diminish as the hours pass, but as foreign aid pours in, i'm hoping that we will hear of more miracle stories - like the baby and his mum who were pulled out after being trapped for 3 days (the baby was unscathed, the mum with a broken leg).

the first quake pictures that surfaced had my dad and i staring at the telly in disbelief - tens of people standing in a semi-circle atop a mountain of rubble, all just watching one man shovel some concrete. eye-power indeed. maybe they didn't have the tools, maybe they're in too much of a shock, etc. but dad and i could think of a million other things they could be doing to help, instead of just standing around on top of fallen buildings. *shrug* and cnn/bbc had that footage on loop too - a hidden message perhaps?

i cannot imagine lying in the musky dark, buried under tons of concrete - familiar surroundings that have been utterly destroyed; having to deal with the excrutiating pain of twisted metal crushing my limbs, fighting for air, calling out in vain.

dying alone.

one of the survivors' few solaces? that it's the month of ramadan, and many muslims believe that those who go at this time are blessed.

after this comes the rebuilding, of villages that have been wiped out, of lives that will forever be scarred. but history has taught me that human beings can be surprisingly strong in the face of adversity.

yet another addition to this year's string of (natural and man-made) tragedies - how much worse is it going to get?