Yahoo – AFP,
Nurdin Hasan, 26 Dec 2014
 |
Women
attend a prayer service at Baiturrahman Mosque in Banda Aceh, in
the northern
Sumatra island, on December 25, 2014, prior to the 10th anniversary
of the
tsunami that hit the west coast of Aceh province (AFP Photo/
Chaideer Mahyuddin)
|
Thousands
of people held a memorial Thursday in Indonesia's Aceh province, the epicentre
of the Indian Ocean tsunami, as the world prepared to mark a decade since a
disaster that took 220,00 lives and laid waste to coastal areas in 14
countries.
On December
26, 2004 a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's western coast sparked a
series of towering waves that wrought destruction across countries as far apart
as Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Somalia.
Among the
victims were thousands of foreign holidaymakers enjoying Christmas on the
region's sun-kissed beaches, striking tragedy into homes around the world.
 |
A tourist
rides a bicycle past a poster
ahead of the tenth anniversary of the 2004
tsunami at Patong beach in Phuket
province on December 25, 2014 (AFP\
Photo/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)
|
Muslim
clerics, tsunami survivors and rescue workers led around 7,000 mourners
gathered at Banda Aceh's black-domed Baiturrahman Grand Mosque for memorial
prayers late Thursday.
Malaysian
cleric Syeikh Ismail Kassim said he and several hundred compatriots attended to
show support for Aceh.
"We
hope Aceh people will not waver as a result of the calamity that has befallen
them," he told AFP.
Aceh governor
Zaini Abdullah thanked Indonesians and the international community in his
address at the mosque, one of the few buildings which withstood the wrath of
the massive earthquake and ensuing waves which left 170,000 people in the
country dead or missing.
"The
tsunami had caused deep sorrow to Aceh residents from having lost their loved
ones," he said.
"Sympathy
from Indonesians and the international community has helped (Aceh) to
recover," he added.
He also
called on residents not to "dwell in our grief, so that we could rise from
adversity and achieve a better Aceh".
Kamaruddin,
a fisherman who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said he attended the
prayers to remember his wife and three children who died in the tsunami.
"I
hope there will be no more disasters in Aceh," the 50-year-old said.
In
Meulaboh, a fishing town considered to be the ground zero of the tsunami --
where 35 metre-high waves flattened almost everything -- Indonesian flags were
flown at half-mast as small groups of residents held night prayers at mosques.
The main
memorials were planned for Friday morning, starting in Aceh which was hit first
by the waves, then moving to Thailand where candlelit ceremonies are expected
in the resort hubs of Phuket and Khao Lak.
There will
also be events in Sri Lanka, including at the site where a train carrying 1,500
people was washed away, as well as in several European capitals to remember
foreign nationals who perished.
'Like
being in a washing machine'
Many of the
tsunami's victims died in dark, churning waters laden with uprooted trees,
boats, cars and eviscerated beach bungalows, as the waves surged miles inland
and then retreated, sucking many more into the sea.
Thailand
saw 5,395 people killed by the disaster -- half of them foreign holidaymakers.
British
survivor Andy Chaggar was in a bungalow on Thailand's Khao Lak when the tsunami
waves struck, taking his girlfriend's life and sweeping him inland.
 |
This
picture taken on December 4, 2014 shows people visiting the Ban Nam
Khem
tsunami memorial park wall in Khao Lak (AFP Photo/Nicolas Asfouri)
|
"I
came to in the water... there was glass, metal, there were pieces of wood,
bricks, it was like being in a washing machine full of nails," he told AFP
on Thursday, on the same beach where he lost his girlfriend.
As the scale
of the tragedy emerged, disaster-stricken nations struggled to mobilise a
relief effort, leaving bloated bodies to pile up under the tropical sun or in
makeshift morgues.
The world
poured money and expertise into the relief and reconstruction, with more than
$13.5 billion collected in the months after the disaster.
Almost $7
billion in aid went into rebuilding more than 140,000 houses across Aceh,
thousands of kilometres of roads, and new schools and hospitals.
The vast
majority of Indonesia's 170,000 victims perished in the province, among them
tens of thousands of children.
But the
disaster also ended a decades-long separatist conflict, with a peace deal
between rebels and Jakarta struck less than a year later.
It also
prompted the establishment of a pan-ocean tsunami warning system, made up of
sea gauges and buoys, while individual countries have invested heavily in
disaster preparedness.
But experts
have cautioned against the perils of "disaster amnesia" creeping into
communities vulnerable to natural disasters.
Related Articles:
Tsunami devastation remembered in Asia, 10 years on (+Video)
"Current" Events – Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)
“… Mass Human
Death
The final
one, dear Human, is the hardest one for my partner and the one we wish to leave
you with in this channeling tonight. This is the one that my partner doesn't
want to even have me talk about. It's the appropriateness of mass death. For
you, built in to your very essence is the honor for life, and the sorrow when
it passes. It's correct and appropriate that this is there, and never let it be
tempered. But the wisdom of understanding is also needed to help you get past
some challenges of the Human heart.
"Dear
Kryon, was the tsunami really necessary?" Yes it was. Almost 200,000 Human
Beings passed over. It's an event that for you is filled with horror, sorrow,
emotion, and challenge. Back in 1989, we told you of those that might have to
leave the earth en masse, and here it is. Yet even my partner [Lee] asks the
questions, "Why the children? Why the poorest parts of the earth? Why the
seeming inappropriateness of all this death?"
And I say
to you the same thing I said with respect to Terri: Do you understand yet that
death is often as precious as life on this planet of many energies and lessons?
They are not gone! They're all here [speaking from Kryon's perspective].
They're having a great time! They're joyful! It seems like a moment ago they
leaned into the wind of birth with us beside them. We said, "How would you
like to participate in an event that will change the compassion factor of the
planet so that energies can move forward and provide faster acceleration of
vibratory shift? How would you like to help create peace on earth through a
consciousness shift within Gaia itself? And they said, "Show us the
way!"
Do you
understand why we are in love with humanity... that you would love the earth
and the Universe so much that you would go through these things? So much of
what you see is horrible tragedy, yet you're looking at the heroes of humanity
as they deliver a gift that will change the very fabric of Gaia through the
compassion created as a wave of humanity responds to their plight.
They knew
the potentials and they went through with it. Even the children knew, for
they're old souls within their divinity. There was so much compassion created
at that time, in that one week, the earth has never seen anything like it in
your lifetime. Billions of Humans were involved with a compassion that
instantly went to the core of the planet. It went into the earth and it's still
there. It changed the actual energy of where you walk and it planted a seeds
that will grow that will indeed emerge later in Israel, and those surrounding
Israel.
And that's
what it's about. Yet some of you didn't want to hear that, did you? But they're
here, with me now... and with you as well. How could you fit them all in this
room, you might ask? They can fit on the head of a pin! That's interdimensional
talk. They can go home in your purse or your pocket! That's interdimensional
talk, too. And they've got a message for you that we've given before, but you
can't hear it enough: "We did our part - now you do yours, Lighthouse! For
the ones who remain are the only ones who can manipulate the tools we have
helped create."
When you go
home tonight, you're not going to be in a survival situation - in a tent in a
tribe with no lights or clean water, with no food. You're not going to be in
sorrow or despair. Instead, you go home to a warm place with plenty of food and
friendship and the love of family. That's why you're the Lighthouses, because
you have time for it. You've got the intellect for it. You're not in survival
mode, as is so much of humanity on the earth. You have the education for it and
the intuition for it. Now, do you understand why there are so many
Lighthworkers in the western world? It's because your culture has created a
situation where there's abundance of these things, and it allows you to lead
the way in changing the energy of earth, instead of having all your time spent
just trying to survive. Does this help you understand the responsibility of
what you have before you?
Strike the
light and send it to the Sudanese. Strike light and send it to those dark
places with governments where there's corruption. Strike the light and send it
to the scientists and researchers who already have the cures for the more
virulent diseases on the planet, but can't begin their work due to the barriers
of certain leadership and their old ways. Strike the light and send it to
Israel and Palestine and get on with this solution! This is why you're here,
and this is the agreement you made when you arrived and selected the culture you
live in.
Achievable
in your lifetime, it is. Peace and compassion will prevail. You shall see. You
shall see.
And so it
is.
Kryon
