2004-12-29T08:12:00.000-08:00

Voltaire said it well way back then, speaking in the aftermath of the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1775. Compare what he wrote in a letter then, with today's Great Asian Tsunami of 2004. [Comments welcome below]

FINAL DEATH TOLL:
?00,000 dead !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Watch the news develop over the next few weeks.

http://humanities.uchicago.edu/homes/VSA/letters/24.11.1755.html

How will this Great Asian Tsunami of 2004 impact future writers, poets, artists, musicians and philosophers? Our spiritual understanding of life on Planet Earth will undergo a huge transformation in the aftermath of this tragic tragic event...

[The Earthquake of Lisbon," on All Saints' Day, 1755, which destroyed 30,000 persons in 6 minutes, drew from Voltaire not only the mockery of Candide, but one of the most beautiful and serious of his writings, The 'Poem on the Disaster of Lisbon'. The disaster is the subject of many of his letters of this period, and profoundly touched his soul.]

In "Les Délices", November 24, 1755, Voltaire wrote:

"This is indeed a cruel piece of natural philosophy! We shall find itdifficult to discover how the laws of movement operate in such fearfuldisasters in the best of all possible worlds-- where a 100,000 ants,our neighbours, are crushed in a second on our ant-heaps, half, dying undoubtedly in inexpressible agonies, beneath debris from which it was impossible to extricate them, families all over Europe reduced to beggary, and the fortunes of a hundred merchants -- Swiss, likeyourself -- swallowed up in the ruins of Lisbon. What a game of chance human life is! What will the preachers say -- especially if the Palace of the Inquisition is left standing! I flatter myself that those reverend fathers, the Inquisitors, will have been crushed just like other people. That ought to teach men not to persecute men: for, while a few sanctimonious humbugs are burning a few fanatics, the earth opens and swallows up all alike. I believe it is our mountains which save us from earthquakes."

Les Délices, UPDATED, December 26, 2004 [THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS 2004]

"This is indeed a cruel piece of natural philosophy! We shall find it difficult to discover how the laws of plate techtonics movementoperate in such fearful seismic disasters in the best of all possible worlds -- where a 200,000 ants, our neighbors, are crushed in a second on our ant-heaps, half, dying undoubtedly in inexpressible agonies, beneath debris from which it was impossible to extricate them, families all over Asia reduced to beggary in the ruins of the Great Asian Tsunami of 2004. What a game of chance human life is! For, while nations fight nations in terrible wars, the Earth, our Earth, opens and the seas swell and swallow up all alike."

What Voltaire experienced in 1775, many people on Earth experienced in the aftermath of the Great Asian Tsunami of 2004. It will have a profound impact on human hope, yearning, philosophy and the understanding of the meaning of life.

BLOG LOG:

http://www.thiswayplease.com/2004/12/day-three.html BLOG

http://news.com.com/Blogs+provide+raw+details+from+disaster+scene/2100-1038_3-5505092.html?tag=nl NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ON TSUNAMI BLOGS

http://www.livejournal.com/users/insomnia/525268.html BLOGS

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/27/quake.aidsites/ FUNDRAISING SITES

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/29/opinion/29winchester.html OPED PIECE

http://jlgolson.blogspot.com/2004/12/tsunami-video.html LIVE VIDEOS

http://sumankumar.com/ BLOG

http://sa.nextwish.org/Video/patong_beach.wmv VIDOES 1,2,3:

http://sa.nextwish.org/Video/sri_lanka_tsunami.wmv

http://sa.nextwish.org/Video/tsunamiphuket.wmv

http://worldchanging.com/

tsunamihelp.blogspot.com

What Was G-d Thinking? http://www.ou.org/other/5765/tsunami3.htm
By Jonathan Sacks, Chief Jewish Rabbi of the UK

The Great Tsunami of 2004