11-17-2007, 05:06 AM
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 | Caretaker | | Join Date: May 2007
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Posts: 1,697
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 A Touch of Tragedy
Hey ya'll. Here's a slice of life you might find interesting. I've been without power for a couple of days and have intermittent power now and the tap water's beginning to smell a bit funny. I'm not complaining though; it’s hard to complain about things like that when most people are wondering about how many bodies are lying scattered along the coastline of your country. A cyclone hitting you head on isn't an everyday occurrence; the last one I remember well was in 91, which took around 150,000 lives. Cyclone Sidr hit the coast of Bangladesh last Thursday at 150 mph. It went through the mangrove forests of the Sunderbans where it was supposted to ease up but didn't. It cut diagonally through the country and over the capital Dhaka till it almost reached Burma (Myanmar) before it began to lose strength. The cyclone is being measured as a category 4 hurricane. The death toll is still uncertain, there are many people unaccounted for and countless fishermen are still missing, and there are also many places where aid workers have not been able to get to yet. The majority of the people in this country are very poor, and their flimsy homes made of bamboo, thatch or tin didn't stand a chance against a storm of this nature. The damage is beyond calculation and the number of casualties continues to mount. If you are interested, this link will take you to a slide show of the disaster. http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/wl/111507bangladeshcyc/im:/071117/photos_wl_afp/50128ccfa9b7094f4d3e037bf7bab6cd;_ylt=Aj9V2V7ouZj. WeyIHl48BWgZO7gF And, yes, those of you who are befuddled by the name 'Sidr', I also think they should come up with names that are easier to pronounce. I don’t know the language of origin of the word, but it means ‘hole’ in Bangla, the language of the Bangladeshi people. Somehow, that just doesn’t seem appropriate.  |
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