pardon my ignorance.

when i opened a new browser window just now, i thought the usual google singapore home page i see looked kind of different. there were 2 more sentences on the page: "support victims of the cyclone in Myanmar (Burma). You donate, and Google will donate up to $1 million to relief efforts."

i thought, wah it must be a really really huge disaster. i went to look it up, and realised that cyclone nargis hit myanmar A WEEK AGO on 3 May. to think i only JUST knew it. i'm ashamed of myself for being so apathetic.

for those who are like me, be it cos you are overseas for exchange or whatever other reason that you don't know about this, here are some fast facts i took from channel news asia's website:
1) it's the first time myanmar has been hit by a cyclone of such deadliness - imagine the people's unpreparedness and helplessness.
2) state officials put the death toll at 23,000, and more than 42,000 missing.
3) but US estimates say the death toll could rise to 100,000 - GASP. that's ALOT of people.
4) 5 disaster areas have been declared, including the capital yangon. more than 24 million people - that's half of myanmar's population, live in these 5 areas.

actually, i was on the train on thursday when i saw some news about disaster aid appeal by red cross hong kong. i didn't manage to find out what exactly was happening cos they didn't show any scenes of destruction in myanmar before i had to alight. i was thinking if something happened in china, never did i expect it to be something somewhere much closer to home.

i don't know why exactly i'm writing about this...i guess i'm just overwhelmed by the scale of the destruction. we in singapore always take things for granted cos we have no natural disasters to worry about, save for the occasional tremors we feel from quakes in indonesia. compared to such a disaster, tremors are just chicken feet man. maybe we should do more, if we have the ability, to return god's blessings.

while reading up on news about cyclone nargis on CNA's website, i came across this article in Today: "Why didn't the Olympic torch stop in Singapore?" exactly, that's what i've been thinking about too! so glad someone finally wrote a story on it. i mean, the torch went to bangkok, kuala lumpur, jakarta, and vietnam in south east asia, so hello? why didn't it come to singapore?! how about a stopover between malaysia and indonesia?! i mean, to get from KL to jakarta, the plane will somehow will fly past singapore right? after all, we are the hosts for the 2010 inaugural youth olympics. or are we just too small a red dot that does not render attention for such important global events?

whatever. now we can only hope that when london plans the next olympic torch relay in 2012, singapore will have a part to play. after all, we hosted the IOC voting session for that olympics. wahahaha. as if that's a really important consideration.

yah, you can go ahead and think layming is mad for getting worked up over what seems to you to be "just a torch relay"! =.=