Who Is Deadlier: Man Or Mother Nature?
Janadas Devan, The Straits Times (Singapore), 1/15/05 Many articles have appeared, both in these pages and elsewhere, suggesting that the Indian Ocean tsunamis show that terrorism, compared to the devastation nature can inflict, is an exaggerated threat. The suggestion is misleading. Natural disasters can indeed be horrendous, but most of them are one-off events and their effects can be contained, although with considerable difficulty. Social, economic and political upheavals, on the other hand, are often impossible to contain, and their ramifications can last decades, if not centuries. Thus the former Chinese premier Zhou Enlai’s famous reply when he was asked about the effects of the 1789 French Revolution. ‘Too early to tell,’ he said. Also, it is nonsensical to compare the number of people who have died at the hands of terrorists in recent years to the number who died in the Indian Ocean tsunamis. September 11 took the lives of far fewer people than the tsunamis, certainly, but tha
