Posted on 01/01/2005 7:23:40 AM PST by Prospero
"Words fail," they say, and they do, they do indeed.
Having just finished a first-stage restoration of my father's 45 year-old home movies, which included scenes of Djakarta, where our family briefly lived, I've always felt a sub vocal kinship with Indonesia and her millions.
They say I spoke Bhasha, the Malay tongue spoken there, and would translate for my parents instructions for the house servants, who were probably also spies for the Junta, the Communists, or both. Perhaps I dream in that language, occasionally, but this week I retreated into a walking nightmare, early on after the first indications that the Banda Aceh Christmas Earthquake of 2004 had swamped the parameter of the east Indian Ocean, strongly hinting at what the world would find when the northern end of Sumatra was finally heard from.
In America, for days, we could watch a handful of the same "amateur videos," from Phuket and Sri Lanka, and the horror there was bad enough. The only such video I've seen of the torrent that scraped over Banda Aceh, however, appears to have taken almost a week to make it to the Internet. I have yet to see it's like on television. It makes what happed to the beaches in Thailand and Sri Lanka look like a creek over running its banks after a brief summer storm.
Let's just say, what happened to the sex tourism spots and coasts and more distant islands elsewhere is nothing in comparison to the fate of Banda Aceh and the western shore of Sumatra. Since so many can't find the words, here are a thousand of them:
Now, if you had told me a week ago that an American Marine expeditionary force would be in Banda Aceh on New Years Day, my first reaction would have been that the President had decided upon a bold and unexpected strike in the War on Terror, jumping ahead on the timeline of that effort's multi-generational strategy. I might have thought it was a bold and necessary move, and I would have believed you if you had said they had located and captured Osama Bin Laden there.
As it was, in our shock, probing in from the parameter toward the epicenter of the Banda Aceh Earthquake, only a few have considered whether the hand of the Almighty reached out and sliced off a decade from what still promises to be a protracted conflict with Islamo-Fascism.
Consider that Indonesia is largely a Muslim country with a population similar to that of the United States, and developments there have been "the elephant in the living room" few wanted to consider as we cleaned out Islamo-Fascist terror nests in Iraq, Afghanistan and the southern Philippines.
Banda Aceh was, until a week ago, home of a Taliban-like, semi-autonomous government that had succeeded in establishing the Sharhia Islamic law, though the central government on Java nominally "allowed" this legal code on a "separate but equal" basis, for Muslims only. That was in 2002, and it was hoped the restive Islamo-Fascist insurgents who have fought for independence from Djakarta for more than twenty years would be satisfied. The locals had even just recently succeeded in putting into place, shall we say, "heavy legal penalties" for anyone who tried to prosthletize a citizen of Greater Islam... meaning Christians, of course.
Not a week passes without stories emerging from Indonesia of an on-going persecution of its Christian minorities, and the central governments failure to put a stop to it, especially the further one travels further from Djakarta to the myriad islands of the Indonesian archipelago. Remember the bombing of the nightclub in Denpasar on Bali, the only refuge for Hindus in Indonesia? The Australians haven't.
When he was forced to leave Sudan, Osama Bin Laden considered moving to Yemen, Afghanistan and Banda Aceh. He decided upon Afghanistan, of course, and may still be holed up there, or on the border with Pakistan, or under the nervous refuge of the Mullah regime of Iran. In fact, the Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh is right up there with Karbala, Qom, Medina and Mecca in everyone's top ten list of Muslim "holy places."
Today, it's an open air morgue, and if they find Osama among the dead there, I wouldn't be a bit surprised.
Sooner or later, we were going to have to deal with Indonesia, in general, and Aceh in particular. And things weren't looking too good.
Things are looking up.
Consider that the Christian Reformation, perhaps even the American Republic, has roots in the Black Death of 1349. People faced with such tragedy question their Worldview, abandon or are, at least, forced to examine their beliefs and habits, and the rebirth of Philosophy and the scientific method in the West began again in the centuries immediately after the plagues of the 14th Christian Century. They certainly questioned the magic of their priests and closely examined the "mysteries," resulting in a rebirth of Bible study that continues to this day. Unquestioned obedience to Rome ended with the Black Plague, and the True Belief of many a young muslim, of their Imams, may come to an end in the aftermath of the Christmas Earthquake.
Now, some might think I'm suggesting the God of Abraham did an angry thing of "biblical proportions" when He decided to shake Sumatra, and that he's on our side, loves George W. Bush, answered the humble prayers of the persecuted, etc., etc. But, this natural tragedy doesn't strike me that way at all. You won't find me cheering the deaths of a million people on Sumatra, and particularly in Aceh.
"Rather fear," I would think, betting on the "beginning of wisdom" might be the best response to this Catastrophe.
But... after you've digested the indigestible scope of the Christmas Earthquake, consider what you might have thought if Kabul under the Taliban had been wiped off the face of the Earth a week or so before our first boots hit the ground there after the destruction of the World Trade Center.
What has happened in Banda Aceh is no less miraculous and undreamed of a possibility, and, at this hour, American Marines are handing out water and food to the pitiable handful who escaped the 20 foot high, hundred mile wide river that swept over their island, again, making what happened in Thailand and Sri Lanka look like a simple storm surge in comparison. The Epicenter of fierce hatred, a sanctuary of Islamo-fascism is no more, as though Falluja had been hit with several hydrogen bombs.
Now you see them, now you don't.
Some of those locals, who have waited for almost a week for food and water, helping off-load our nation's charity are wearing T-Shirts with the image of Osama on them.
We certainly didn't cause this tragedy, but we'd be fools not to take advantage of the strategic miracle God has handed to us.
Thank you for the post - I am glad to see some threads about the history of Aceh. Many people are not aware of it's history.
You mean these experiences?
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=53383
Car Nicobar's famous church flattened by tsunami:
[India News]: Port Blair, Jan 1 : The famous John Richardson church in Car Nicobar in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands has been completely destroyed by the giant tsunami that also killed thousands in the pristine archipelago.
"Nothing remains of the church," moaned pastor Silvanus, who has just been rescued by navy from Car Nicobar, part of the archipelago which has 572 islands, islets and rocks in the Bay of Bengal.
Officially named the St. Thomas Cathedral Church, it was established in the 1930s during British colonial rule and was one of the oldest and most distinguished churches in the region.
The name John Richardson comes from late local hero and missionary Bishop John Richardson who spread Christianity across the Andamans, was a legendary do-gooder and was even nominated to parliament by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
He died in 1978 and this year a special statue dedicated to him and a stadium named after him were to open in Car Nicobar. But everything was washed away by the tsunami.
Even the guesthouses, which were to keep Andaman and Nicobar Lieutenant Governor Ram Kapse when he would arrive to inaugurate the statue and the stadium, were completely destroyed.
"I am more sad about the destruction of the church than even my injuries," said Anil Mistry, part of the parish of the St. Thomas Church and now a tsunami survivor in a hospital here.
He has fractured both his kneecaps and is suffering from food poisoning. "The church meant everything to me and to so many people from Nicobar. John Richardson was like a saviour here - there are so many he helped, so many lives he had touched.
"To think that anything built in his memory should suffer like this is tragic, really tragic."
Added H. Samuel, another survivor: "He was the messiah with the gospel around here. It is because of John Richardson that so many people were able to learn to write and speak in English.
"He literally showed us the light and now everything that we wanted to do for his memory has been cast into darkness. The moment I get healed, I'll try to do my best to recreate a church in his name."
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/152/52.0.html
India's Christian community was not spared. "It has been a terrible tragedy since it all happened on Sunday when the church service was on, and it occurred during the Christmas period," Donald H.R. De Souza, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, said earlier this week. "In the Kottar area of Tamil Nadu, about 300 Christians who were attending a religious service died."
One of the country's holiest Christian sites, the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health in Velankanni, was hit severely. The shrine, typically busiest during the Christmas season, has reported at least 700 deaths, and that number is expected to rise dramatically.
Fascinating. Thanks.
There will certainly be many 'rains on the just and unjust' situations now and in coming months and years.
However, I'm convinced that even you--if you have a shred of fair-mindedness at the time--will be able to see some serious net differences at some point.
I actually believe strongly that at some point, there won't even be a contest or question any more. There will be at least a remnant of Believers who are sheltered and protected even if they are moving from place to place under angelic guard.
And everyone else will be--at some point--removed from the planet.
Should be interesting.
I hardly know what to make of this stunning information. Thanks for bringing it to light.
All I knew about Aceh was that they had an active separatist movement for at least a couple of decades. I suspect we'll be hearing much more from the place, much like we heard from Nicaragua after they had their quake in 1972.
Here's a url which has some photographs of Banda, Aceh, in all of its beauty, before the tsunami.
http://www.nihonkai.com/affra/
Particularly, Indonesia 4, 5, 6 & 7.
You can make out some of these structures in the satellite photos of the destruction.
I just watch CNN (Lord forgive me, but they're better at this International coverage... someone needs to tell Fox to leave the beach in Thailand, and head for the Lincoln, just offshore from Aceh.)
Mike Chinoy was on the first chopper down the westcoast of Sumatra, where it's hard to find any survivors.
The Navy personnel was stunned, and so were some rag-tag locals who came out from the debris to scramble for the first aid they've gotten since the Quake.
Their village is wiped out, and one of them, wearing the Aceh tribal head gear was emphatic.
"Aceh is drowned," he said. "It is finished."
Another swiped Chinoy's microphone, and screamed "Thank you, thank you," in Bhahasha.
It was clear the young men were impressed, and stunned, that the first they hear from the ourside world is from Americans.
Does anyone have the link for ACEH disaster page that has the photos/lists of victims?
Which country did I hear about that had hundreds of floating mines washed away to higher ground?
I was waiting for a Christian to claim the disaster might be a good thing because of who the victims were.
Your post has given me a lot to think about. I'm not one to believe that God causes disasters, although there's plenty of precedence for that in the OT. But, it's often awed me to witness how He can make even the greatest tragedies serve His good. Sometimes it takes two and three generations removed from a tragedy before my human eyes have been able to see how He's performed transformations. I'm going to be watching the developments in this region much more closely and with different eyes because of your post. Thanks again.
I've been praying for God to bind Satan at Mosul.
Maybe God is not so constricted in His great plans.
The rain falls on the just and the unjust, so one cannot assume this epic catastrophe was planned by the Almighty as a rebuke of the evil of Islamofascism.
Still I am awed.
I THINK Davey's asking for this ping for prayer.
Bless all of you in the New Year.
I haven't heard that but it's likely Sri Lanka.
God HAS declared that HE WILL/DOES work ALL things together for good for those who Love Him, . . .
And, that, essentially, the wicked reap tons of grief and sorrow . . . partly because that's the seeds they've planted more than otherwise . . . partly because those seeds carry extra . . . costly . . . interest.
But I'm sure you're well able to go on making your own choices and ignoring God, if you wish.
Good points.
I don't think anyone's made such a claim, or even suggested such a thing, and certainly not me or the author of the piece.
That would be as presumptious as trying to understand what God is up to when a Tornado skips over a strip joint and wipes out a Church building next door.
I think the author, and I, both agree, whether Divine Retribution or blind determinism, the wholesale, almost universal destruction on Sumatra and the Aceh region presents the United States with an unexpected opportunity to take advantage of a reshuffled deck in a very strategic location in the War on Terror.
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