Natural Disasters
December 27th, 2006, in News, by PatungPresident Yudhoyono advises the people not to be superstitious about natural disasters.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, putting some distance between himself and some of his rather superstitious predecessors, namely presidents Suharto and Gus Dur, said on the 20th of December that natural disasters were inevitable in Indonesia, for geological and other environmental reasons, and that the people should not think of them in terms of their mystical beliefs or as a result of political happenings.
Krakatau: The Destruction and Reassembly of an Island Ecosystem.
The various earthquakes, such as the one in Yogyakarta in May 2006, and the southern Java earthquake and tsunami of July, as well as the massive Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, that had happened recently were not unusual and in the past much worse catastrophes had occured.
More than one thousand years ago a Sumatran volcano erupted creating a gigantic hole that we now know as Toba Lake. It is believed the Sumatran volcano’s eruption was the most horrifying explosion ever registered on earth but this event has long been forgotten by people today.
Then again at the beginning of the 19th century, Mt. Tambora erupted killing tens of thousands of people. Later that century Mt Krakatau erupted and also killed untold numbers. [1]
Dust from the Mt. Krakatau eruption reached Europe while a tsunami following the eruption swept through the islands of Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and the Malaysian peninsula.
Tags: Environment
45 Comments on “Natural Disasters”
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Ali Says:
December 27th, 2006 at 6:47 amPresident Yudhoyono advises the people not to be superstitious about natural disasters.
We should think about it from a religious point of view. There is a clear, visible pattern, which I’d rather not mention in this forum.
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Mohammed Khafi Says:
December 27th, 2006 at 2:04 pmMythos or Logos?
Mythos will drag us back to the days of ignorance, Logos will allow us to move forward using knowledge, science, reasoning and logic to a new age of enlightenment. Are science and religion compatible? Too right they are!
Ali you go back to your dukun, lucky charms, love potions and superstition, you can share your life with babi ngepet and kuntilanak just don’t drag the rest of the people into your superstitious darkness.
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1ndra Says:
December 27th, 2006 at 6:31 pmNature disasters are nature disasters, I hope.
Hope that they arent manmade, and I’m not thinking anything related to syirik.
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December 27th, 2006 at 8:16 pmHi 1ndra,
There are some who would like us to belive that their manmade disasters such as Sidoarjo are natural disasters “The steaming mud flow in Sidoarjo is a natural disaster which seems impossible to overcome, Adhie MassardI said in a function to explain the report of …
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December 27th, 2006 at 11:45 pmYeah, poor people, and my friend live not far away from there, just a few kilometers.
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Andrew Says:
December 28th, 2006 at 12:46 amThe Sidoarjo mud issue is clearly caused by human. Attempts to describe it as a natural disaster is a cover-up attempt to deny accountability. The disaster is definitely of an epic proportion, and that company must be held accountable.
We’ll see how justice is served in a case of this magnitude.
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Tomaculum Says:
December 28th, 2006 at 1:43 amWe are also nature disaster, aren’t we?
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December 28th, 2006 at 9:15 amRight Tomaculum, we are human, we are nature.
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Olong Olong Says:
December 28th, 2006 at 11:03 amGuys,
Have you ever thought what would happened if Lapindo is owned by Chinese conglomerate ?
Will Indonesian f#$k-ing Govt consider this as a natural disaster??
peace
O2
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December 28th, 2006 at 7:29 pm1ndra: and we are disastrous.
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December 28th, 2006 at 11:16 pmIsn’t it clear who to blame? The Lapindo disaster is either caused by the Israelis, or the Chinese.
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Ihaknt Says:
December 29th, 2006 at 5:51 amAli, wtf?! No, it was CIA and the Americans who are responsible…Everything that goes wrong in this world is their fault. We ourselves are never at blame. I tripped and fell this morning, i truly believed that the CIA intendedly put the door mat in an angle so I would trip. And I did! Bloody CIA! There must’ve been some kind of a conspiracy.
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Olong Olong Says:
December 29th, 2006 at 11:04 amAli,
Chinese people are smarter than pribumi conglomerates, they just wait and see…someday when the Lapindo Mud can be proccessed to be something usefull, then…Chinese conglomerates will come to play… :))
So, you be patient……don’t blame chinese…at least not now.
O2
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Hassan Says:
January 2nd, 2007 at 1:54 pmNaah, the CIA don’t place boobytrapped door mats, that looks more like the works of mossad to me, seriously. It got mossad written all over it.
Their next move will be placing bananas over your driveway. Beware of the Jews!!!
BTW, what you said is not a conspiracy, that’s a reality. The conspiracy theory is the recent gossip that george w. bush is a liar. What a wild one!
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January 2nd, 2007 at 3:46 pmInstead placing a tank outside your house with its mounted cannon right at your door.
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January 2nd, 2007 at 4:24 pmI like the Jews because when I go to dinner to their place I can be sure I am not eating any pork. Gossip is not a gossip if it’s true, d’oh! Oh and I like boobies, so I hope the boobytraps is the kind of boobies I like.
But there’s another story all together. -
Dimp Says:
January 3rd, 2007 at 7:23 amI thought the Arabs were behind CIA and Mossad, and the Americans are behind the Arabs, but the Jews are the one driving the Americans, and Big Bird, Ernie, and Bert are the ones that we actually need to be fearful off.
This message has been brought to you by the letter P, for Paranoid, and the letter of C for Conspiracy.
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January 3rd, 2007 at 8:09 amBig Bird, Ernie, and Bert are the ones that we actually need to be fearful off.
That’s right. They are corrupting the children since a very young age.
Dimp, the C word can be taken as something else.
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January 3rd, 2007 at 10:29 amI thought the Arabs were behind CIA and Mossad, and the Americans are behind the Arabs, but the Jews are the one driving the Americans, and Big Bird, Ernie, and Bert are the ones that we actually need to be fearful off.
This message has been brought to you by the letter P, for Paranoid, and the letter of C for Conspiracy.
That’s might look like this : Disasters by CIA by Mossad by Arabs by American by Jew
Ihaknt’s slip by Big Bird, Ernie, and Bert
1ndra -> Aspirin
Now, where’s mine? -
January 4th, 2007 at 9:05 amBig Bird, Ernie and Bert are just henchmen. The real king pin is Kermit. And Kermit’s a half Jew. Beware of Kermit!!! Run for your lives!
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January 4th, 2007 at 9:10 amI thought Kermit represents the PPP as he always wears “green”.
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January 4th, 2007 at 9:29 amNothing wrong with Jews. Jews are just a race who believe in a different belief from mine. Just like any race, there are bad apples. Thankfully, all the Jews I know are nice, law abiding citizens, very rich, respectful and easy going. While some of the Moslems and chiristians I know are a**holes. Hence they are not my friends.
Dimp what is P3?
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January 4th, 2007 at 10:38 amSome kind of Partai
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DianDoank Says:
January 5th, 2007 at 4:54 ampartai persatuan pembangunan? correct?
btw for Sidoarjo, I read at the detik.com there is a similarity between these mud disaster with those that happened in Japan (don’t remember the cities) after earthquake. And the last Jogya earthquake might induced this mud-disaster (according one of the geology prof. from Tokyo if I am not mistaken-couldn’t find the link hmf). But I found this http://rovicky.wordpress.com/2006/06/27/mungkinkah-gempa-penyebab-mud-flow/ which might can be an additional cause for Sidoarjo.
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January 5th, 2007 at 6:18 amHi Dian Doank,
Either way, what actually causes the mud flow, the important thing is what the Indonesian government is actually doing to take care of this incident.
The track record of the government in caring for the people who fell victims to natural disasters (tsunami in Aceh, earthquake in Yogya etc), as well as other incidents (the recent Adam Air incident, the messy haj pilgrimage that left people with no food for 30 hours) has been simply appaling.
It is time for these ‘fat cats’ in Jakarta to own up and be responsible for this mess, start acting like grown ups. I mean they are getting paid to do their job, if what they do is blame others, we can do it ourselves, why do we bother paying these politicians?
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January 5th, 2007 at 10:24 amThe Adam Air incident…well these discussion are flowing in other forum. Patung please comeback and add this hottest topic please.
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January 5th, 2007 at 12:22 pmLeave Patung on his holiday. He needs a break from loonies like us.
I am sure he will fire away when he is back. -
January 5th, 2007 at 3:34 pmI hope he isn’t reading news, so he have a fresh holiday.
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January 6th, 2007 at 11:03 amIhaknt: you’re too serious.
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January 6th, 2007 at 2:20 pmI hope the Adam Air incident will open the eyes of the officials or any other parties involved that by cutting the costs of already low cost carriers that they are playing with people lives.
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January 11th, 2007 at 5:59 pmThank God they finally found the Adam Air wreckage. The families of the victims must be relieved (temporarily at least) to hear the news.
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January 13th, 2007 at 1:13 amFree competition is good for consumers, the more airlines out there the merrier - we have more choices. BUT without proper oversight and control it is a disaster, like this one and many other examples.
Regardless of the root cause of this accident, I can’t help but say that (a lot of) Indonesians are amazing, at almost all levels they don’t think much of the implications of what they do. Even on technologically complex equipment like aircrafts, a lot of corners are cut, maintenance procedures and schedule skipped. As if they’re operating a fleet of Bajaj.
The KNKT should partly be held responsible for situation in general - including train and ferry accidents. All the incidents clearly shows lack of oversight.
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January 13th, 2007 at 6:17 pmThe transportation minister should resign, if he still have any feeling of shame left in him. KNKT is only good at finding wreckages and investigating accidents, NOT in preventing the accidents on the first place.
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January 13th, 2007 at 6:48 pmPreventing the accident in the first side might not let the old ‘bobrok’ airplane used in Indonesia then redesign the communication/information technology so the pilot know what wait ‘em and how to deal with it.
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January 13th, 2007 at 8:33 pmWhat is wrong with Indonesia anyway? The tsunami, the earthquake in Yogya, the mud eruption in porong, the landslides nearly in every part of Indonesia, the yearly floods in some major cities, the forest fires and the smoke we exported to our neighboring countries, the busung lapar cases, the bird flu outbreak, plane crashes (Adam air, and Lion air not so long ago), ships sunk. It’s one thing after the other.
Should all of those things be attributed to natural disasters? Are we without fault? What about our government? Nothing wrong with the way they administrate our country?
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January 13th, 2007 at 11:57 pmIsn’t KNKT the Indonesian version of the NTSB? - responsible for establishing the technical safety guidelines, doing inspections, etc.? If it is then is should be partly responsible for all these accidents.
Anyway, yes, we should contemplate why we’re being hit by a series of disasters - natural or not.
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January 14th, 2007 at 11:46 amThe tsunami and earthquake are out of catch, but the global warming is our responbility.
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January 14th, 2007 at 11:55 pm1ndra: Perhaps the tsunami, earthquake, etc were Allah’s warning to us for being ignorant and enjoyed comitting sins all the time.
“Tidak ada yang terjadi sia-sia”. One thing relates to another.
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January 15th, 2007 at 10:30 amYes, we should point it that way, a warning.
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January 15th, 2007 at 10:35 am1ndra, but it could also be a warning that people should use their heart and start to be a bit more tolerant towards each other regardless of their believes, race, gender, social status?
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January 15th, 2007 at 4:29 pmAll of them…:)
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January 15th, 2007 at 10:29 pmAmen to that.
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January 15th, 2007 at 11:01 pmMaybe CIA or Mossad controlling the ocean and the weather?
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January 15th, 2007 at 11:38 pmNo, they are controlling the remote car bombing, with satellites.
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January 16th, 2007 at 12:14 amYeah, the bad guys!
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