We are all blessed to live in a nation called Malaysia because we had never experienced any major calamity compared to many other countries. Hurricanes, typhoon, tornado, earthquake, volcanic eruption or even tsunami were something which I only heard of, read in newspaper, or as themes of entertainment from the TV, movies and magazines etc. The global warming, climate changes and ecological impact on earth might have caused the recent tsunami and the feel of seismic tremor from neigbouring countries.
I asked my mum once why Japan had to conquer and attack other nations during the second world war. My mum told me that it was because Japan was a land full of volcanoes and therefore they had to expand their territory in order to look for a better place to stay. It might not be the entire truth from the explanation of my mum but it did give the implication that, a land without natural disaster, indeed is a blessed place to stay!
I only experienced the first earthquake in Taiwan in late 80s while I was renting a place from a friend Cephas Lee, near to Min Sheng East road, right at the middle of Taipei City. The tremor and vibration had caused the rattling of the items stored on shelves and inside the kitchen, also I could feel a slight swaying of the bed or apartment. It was not that scary as it was just a mild quake. At the same Taipei city, on a particular night when we attended a Malaysian colleague wedding dinner, the city issued the first warning of the coming typhoon. Other than the heavy rain and the occasional falling down of sign boards onto the streets, I did not feel the full impact of a real typhoon. However the Mc Donald store was flooded and also there were deaths near the river bank as reported in the next day news. That was my first experience of a typhoon too! Subsequent typhoons were more of a fun to me, mainly because the office would close and you would still get paid for a day off at home!
Malaysia never had haze before and only in year 1996-97 that haze started to come into picture as a result of forest fire in Indonesia. And tsunami was just a one off incident for Malaysia and this happened while I was in Mexico and US. I remember how the US immigration officer saw my Malaysian passport and asked me "Are you glad to be in the US while the tsunami occurred in your country?" I only replied the extent of damage was minimal in Malaysia as the glaze of the Indonesian tsunami just swept past some remote corners of some Malaysian islands, the full impact was blocked off by Sumatra of Indonesia.
A few scary incidents which could be categorized under natural disaster that occurred in Malaysia include the caving in of a house in my village while I was still studying in Universtiy Malaya, and also the death of many persons because of the Nipah virus. Other than that, Malaysia is simply a country too good to be true to live in! There were plenty of jobs and we could easily find jobs, even going to work in Singapore across the causeway and getting a PR is a breeze! Malaysians also could work in Hongkong, China and Taiwan without any problem because of their good command of languages.
Where on earth one could find a place like Malaysia to live in? I love Malaysia despite some uncalled for issues stirred up by some unscrupulous politicians just for their own selfish gain!
God bless Malaysia!
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