Secondary: Rapid Response Assemblies
Indian Ocean Tsunami
By Stuart Kerner
 Suitable for Whole School
Aim
To consider the scale of the tragedy and reflect on human suffering.
Preparation and materials
- It is possible that you will have students who are directly affected by this terrible tragedy on Boxing Day. Naturally you should use your own professional judgement about such sensitivities in delivering this material.
- You might like to have a newspaper as a visual aid, especially one that shows numbers of casualties in diagrammatic form.
- Keep the focus on this as a time of worship - avoid using it as a time for routine messages and announcements.
- At the time of writing the death toll had reached the following proportions:
Indonesia: 94,0812
Sri Lanka: 29,7443
India (inc Andaman
and Nicobar Is): 94,514
Thailand: 4812 |
Somalia: 1426
Burma: 537
Maldives: 748
Malaysia: 67 |
Tanzania: 1010
Seychelles: 111
Bangladesh: 212
Kenya: 1 |
- Tsunami is a Japanese word, which means, 'harbour wave'. 'Tsu' means harbour, while the 'nami' means 'wave'. Tsunamis can be produced when the sea floor rapidly deforms and vertically dislodges the overlying water. Tectonic earthquakes are a particular kind of earthquake that are associated with the distortion of the earth's crust; when these earthquakes occur beneath the sea, the water above the deformed area is displaced. Waves are formed as the displaced water, which acts under the influence of gravity, attempts to regain its stability. When large areas of the sea floor rise or fall, a tsunami can be created.
As a tsunami leaves the deep water of the open ocean and travels into the shallower water near the coast, it transforms. A tsunami travels at a speed that is related to the water depth - thus, as the water depth decreases, the tsunami slows. The tsunami's energy variation, which is dependent on both its wave speed and wave height, remains nearly constant. Consequently, as the tsunami's speed diminishes in shallower water, its height grows. Because of this effect, a tsunami, barely visible at sea, may grow to be several metres or more in height near the coast.
When it finally reaches the coast, a tsunami may appear as a rapidly rising or falling tide or a series of breaking waves.
For more information about the tsunami click here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/specials/2004/asia_earthquake_disaster/default.stm
Assembly
- Ask students what they were doing on Boxing Day. Visiting relatives, playing with presents, watching TV are all likely answers.
- Remind them that at 6.58 local time, an earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter scale caused a tsunami that brought to an end the lives of many thousands of people around the Indian Ocean, and left many more homeless and destitute. (You may want to briefly discuss what a tsunami actually is.)
- Ask them to consider the contrast, and point out that for most of us suffering on this scale is beyond our imagination.
- Point out that because of the sheer scale of the disaster, the news media have become preoccupied with numbers and statistics. Negative numbers, like the number of the dead, the number of the homeless, the numbers killed by nationality. Also positive numbers like the £75 million raised by the British people and the £1 billion in aid pledged by governments around the world.
- Some newspapers have made comparisons to try to digest the death toll: four football stadiums or the population of a large town like Telford.
- Some pointed out that in comparison to other natural disasters this is not the worst (cf. Chinese Earthquake in 1976 which killed 600,000 or the cyclone in 1970 that killed 500,000 in Bangladesh).
- Comment that because of the sheer scale on the suffering, it is very easy to concentrate on numbers and ignore the suffering of the individual. You can't quantify suffering.
- Each cold statistic represents the loss of a real human being and the potential that life brought with it. Each individual statistic represents bereaved and traumatised loved ones. The individual mothers searching for their children, the children crying for their mothers, the homeless people with nowhere to go and no clean water to drink. It's easier to think in numbers than to think about individuals.
- Such huge numbers also raise other, deeper questions which we cannot answer. Insurance policies would call this "an act of God". For some this would have to be, since God is "in control". Many will ask why God allows such immense suffering; others will proclaim it to be proof that God doesn't really exist.
- Until we can come to terms with the sheer scale of this tragedy the big questions and unimaginable suffering may need to be left to one side.
- In the meantime we should concentrate on giving what we can both in terms of money, but also in ensuring we think about and pray for those affected. (You might like to mention any fundraising planned in your school).
Time for reflection
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Psalm 46
Prayer
Lord, who is all-powerful,
Help us to come to terms
with the enormity of the suffering caused by the tsunami,
Give us the insight to imagine the unimaginable,
And the sensitivity to show love for our fellows.
Feed the hungry,
Give peace to the suffering
And shelter to the homeless.
We ask this in your holy name.
AMEN
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