Swept away by sadness<\/p>\n
It was time once again for the round of finger-pointing --
\nanother disaster to be picked apart and analyzed after the fact
\n-- when a flash flood ripped through Bahorok area in Langkat
\nregency, North Sumatra, last Sunday.<\/p>\n
The grim statistics -- more than 100 people dead and an equal
\nnumber still missing, feared dead -- are only part of the story.<\/p>\n
The flooding is said to have occurred when dams, created by
\nthe accumulation of logs upstream, burst, flushing huge logs,
\ndebris along with mud onto the riverbanks, gushing toward houses
\nand cottages nearby and shattering them to pieces.<\/p>\n
Again, innocent people were the victims, left to grieve and
\nthen rebuild their lives once the media spotlight has moved away.<\/p>\n
But, when the houses have been rebuilt and the people's
\nsadness has been salved, will the illegal loggers who have been
\nblamed for the disaster be left to their own devices once again,
\nrunning rampage and decimating Sumatra's jungles?<\/p>\n
When the inevitable does happen -- more forest fires, perhaps,
\nor the long predicted extinction of the Sumatran tiger or rhino
\nin the wild -- at least we will be used to yet more of the same
\n"day-after" analysis. Talk, after all, is cheap.<\/p>\n
-- R. Berto Wedhatama<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/swept-away-by-sadness-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }