LIFE Blog

This morning, I read an article in The Star Newspaper about a newly opened Tsunami Museum at Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

The museum is filled with paintings depicting the horror scenes on the Tsunami that hit Banda Aceh 26-Dec-2004 morning after an underwater earthquake which registered 9.13 on Richter Scale. What happened next was disastrous! The quake caused the sea water to rose about 20m high and traveled with 300km/h inland and then swept the entire city of Banda Aceh. More than 128,000 people died with over 93,000 people were missing (which mean their bodies were never found).



The painting “Ketika Tsunami Datang” (When The Tsunami Came) shows the shock and fear of the people by the shore before the scrambled away from the dark wall of seawater.

Then, there is this picture entitled “Oh Tuhan, Anakku” (Oh God, My Child) which shows a mother whom barely able to cling to a wooden pillar while watching her baby being swept away by the current.

One of the survivor, Zulfinah, recalled on how she witnessed helplessly her mother, grandmother, brothers and sisters being swallowed into the sea wall. She and her husband together with their 5 children however survived the ordeal.

Another survivor, Herwansa, shared on how he survived through that disastrous event. Moment after he was swept by the current, he managed to get hold of an electricity pole only to be entangled by it later. He again, managed to break it off but was then hit by a submerged ambulance before finally pinned against a wall by a huge wood trunk.

Herwansa took about 3 hours to get himself released and by that time, he had used up all his energy. And when he saw and heard a granny crying asking for help, he cried out regretfully “Maaf bu, ngak daya” (Sorry madam, no energy). And these same lines were constantly heard by his wife as he repeated it countlessly in his dreams until now. He would sometimes swing his hands so hardly as if he is trying to free himself from something.

I believe this kind of event can never be forgotten easily. The entire village was destroyed and the effects after the event will definitely leave a deep impact to everyone especially the survivors. Watching helplessly your friends and families being swallowed by the wave, hearing all the screams of panics and fears, dead bodies floating around will never be easy to erased.



It’s just so sad that the world is still busy with wars and racisms. Despite all the colors of the skins, eye lids, hair, etc, aren’t our body flowing with the same liquid called BLOOD which is in RED color?

There is nothing much we can do to prevent Tsunami from coming but there are definitely many ways we can stop WAR! We should criminalized war and learn to respect the differences.

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