If fire or wind does not get you, water will. People and property seem to be irrelevant specks in nature’s scheme of things. It is as if the elements have embarked on a major cleaning up operation to rid the world of its vilest inhabitant-humanity. Indeed, is it not a fact that the world minus the marauding mankind would be a much safer place for other creatures and nature itself to thrive? Well, nature seems to think so and worse, looks bent on hitting back with a vengeance. Little wonder that while the presumptuous homo sapiens are busy felling forests, sullying the skies and reclaiming sea land to satiate their insatiable needs, nature, by unleashing such calamities, confirms emphatically who the ultimate boss really is!
The macabre story scripted by nature yesterday is a tell-tale revelation of its absolute supremacy.
Humans, the ones alive, have been made toeat humble pie and put on permanent notice, to wallow in perennial fear. It is not that such calamities are a phenomena of only the modern era. Numerous death dances have been played out on the world stage from time immemorial. But what makes such disasters starkly more tragic in the present, apart from the vivid images purveyed by the omnipresent media, is the artificial walls of security all around and the resultant complacence that mankind has lapsed into. At least, this was not the case with the ancients who always had an ear to the ground, revered and respected nature and were more sensitive to its inscrutable plans. Today, knowledge of the world’s ways has inundated and drowned earthy wisdom so much so that instead of enlightenment there is absolute insulation, exacerbating the shock impact whenever a tragedy of such magnitude occurs.
Let alone all the tall talk of conquering nature, modern minds seem to be clueless in even comprehending its sighs. In this age of burgeoning science and booming information, man has moved totally away and even cut off his links with nature, letting instruments do the job of the sensory organs and computers to think for him. We claim that in these days of satellites and e-mails info travels faster than light. The first tremors happened at around 6.15 a.m. 1ST. The resultant tidal waves took two to three hours to reach our shores — time enough to heed the warnings and take precautions, if only we knew of the lurking monster in the depths of the sea. Nature clearly outwitted man by keeping its plans a secret. It was a cloak and dagger operation, beyond the perception of the instruments that man has drafted for his protection.
All this is said not to belittle the achievements of mankind in the realms of science. But there is certainly a case for taking a relook at several of our activities and projects that directly trespass on nature’s domain. Man’s incessant tampering with nature is already making this world uninhabitable what with environmental hazards and scientific Frankensteins looming all over. Nature by itself seems to bear a major grudge towards its tormentors and settles account by choosing its time and place. And as if that is not enough, should we provoke it further more, in the name of development and advancement, by stepping on its shoes too often and kindling its revengeful mood?
Yesterday, mankind was reminded of its impotence. When unnatural laws mandated by man can take their own course, why not the lawful nature, that flows from the divine? Indeed, nature will always have the last laugh, but alas, to the accompaniment of humanity’s wails!
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