The Storm Hits Home
Terrible things are always happening on the other side of the world - just count up the fatalities from Bangladeshi floods in the past twenty years - but the Christmas Tsunami has quickly come home. Formerly remote beaches have become holiday destinations for affluent Western visitors - people far too sophisticated to be called "tourists." These vacationers are educated and affluent, and when they survive a disaster they know how to talk about it. Natives, probably not very garrulous in their own language anyway, are mute to us, but Keira Colman and Carl Michael Bergman, and doubtless many, many others, will prove to have been eloquent witnesses. Thanks to their presence in what used to be far corners of the earth, this storm will be with us for a long time.
