El Nino

El Nino

Nobody has ever seen El Nino, but everybody has felt the brunt
of its unpredictable moods, especially in Asia. El Nino is a
weather phenomenon, the source of which is said to lie somewhere
off the coast of Peru in South America, which a few months ago
brought prolonged drought and misery to many countries in this
region.

People complained about the scorchingly hot weather which
caused the rice harvest to fail in Indonesia, forcing the country
to import millions of tons of rice to meet domestic needs.

At that time, every day we looked up at the sky and fervently
hoped that rain would come. Rainmakers had a busy time calling
for rain through their mumbled mantras until about six months ago
when the first raindrops in months fell, heralding the arrival of
the rainy season.

Now people are cursing the weather again, this time as a
result of La Nina, the reverse of the El Nino effect, because of
the widespread flooding which it has brought to many parts of
Asia. La Nina means little sister.

In South Korea, floods have claimed the lives of 43 people. In
Bangladesh, floods killed at least 13 people and have left
thousands of people homeless.

In Indonesia, tobacco plants were destroyed by incessant rain
and farmers had to replant their fields with other crops.
Samarinda in East Kalimantan suffered four days of incessant
heavy rain which caused widespread flooding earlier this year. A
distant relative of mine who is a physician in the city had to
take shelter in a hotel when his house was inundated.

In China, the mighty Yangtze River has burst its banks and
local people have been forced to make temporary dikes along the
banks of the river using sandbags. So we must never under
estimate the power of El Nino, or its younger sister La Nina.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta