When terrible earthquakes happen like the one last night in Turkey, or the tsunami in Thailand, I become reminded of the greatness of power, how we in front of Mother Earth, are all equals. I’ve felt small tremors in the south of Sweden and in San Francisco. I’ve evacuated due to tsunami warnings in Hawaii, twice, besides watching lava flow into the ocean. And I’ve seen crashing waves and storms in Portugal. The question though arises: Is it foreseeable and even preventable what happens with our climate? Are our casualties not in fact due to mans’ own mistakes, of building homes and businesses in areas that are more prone to earthquakes and tsunamis? Would so many tourists have died in Thailand in December 2004, if they weren’t all so keen on laying at the beach by the ocean? Would so many people gotten killed in Turkey, would there not have been built so many high-rises in that area?

When I lived in Hawaii, I learned that tsunamis often happen during December-January and during full moon. Is that how it is for earthquakes too? Do they have seasons? We can measure Mother Earth’s movements and thus prepare for a volcanic eruption, a tsunami or an earthquake, but can we ever predict them?

One simply has to succumb to one’s conditions, or move to where they’re different.