Tsunami kills more than 80,000

CNN has confirmed that the undersea earthquake off Sumatra and the giant waves it triggered killed 80,427 people, and that number is expected to rise.

I dont know if it's helping that im posting all these figures here in my blog. Well anyway, i think i'd continue doing this as long as there's something to report. An interesting insight i got from the same site is the misconception that corpses serve as the cause of the underlying diseases. False.

Survivors faced the greatest risk of disease from exposure to feces or other contaminants produced by live people, Nabarro said, and that means it was critical for health officials to move quickly to provide survivors with clean drinking water and sanitation facilities.

The mistaken belief that decomposing bodies lead to outbreaks of diseases often leads authorities to undertake mass burials or cremations, which can add to the suffering of survivors, said Dr. Dana Van Alphen, an adviser to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which is a regional office of WHO.

"In too many cases," said Van Alphen, "authorities rush to bury victims without identifying them, under the false belief that bodies pose a serious threat of epidemics. It is just not true."

These bodies become harmless upon death. Decomposition only follows and that's it.

"After a number of hours, the pathogens inside the dead person's body become not dangerous. They usually decompose and die. And the dead person therefore is not a primary threat to the health of others."

Why be in a hurry to cremate the bodies or burry them when this only deters identification, which is a highly significant process? What people can do instead is focus on the diseases such as dysentery, malaria, dengue etc. which can be acquired through contaminated water.

I thought of a concept for a emotionally laden video. Picture this: as people from one country move the corpses found, while some of the widowed grieve over the death of their spouses, relatives cry over their lost families, and kids suffer and stare blankly at space for being orphaned at 8, 5, 3, the words

At ikay ay kaagad sumusuko
Konting hirap at munting pagsubok lamang
Bakit ganyan, nasaan and iyong tapang
Naduduwag, nawawalan ng pag-asa
At iniisip na natutulog pa, natutulog pa ang Diyos
Natutulog ba?

start to play and then the video goes on all throughout the song... or a good alternative would be take me out of the dark, also by the same artist. I haven't thought yet of a caption to put. Bahala na ang writer don.