Oct 05 2009
Nowhere But Here
Is there any place in the world which safe and sound from disaster?
I ask the question after the quake rocked West Sumatera last week.
A friend of mine, also a blogger like me, raised that her mom had lived long in Padang and she almost lost her house due to the quake.
Then another blogger advised her that her mom should move to another town, coz considering the unpleasant fact, that Padang has been rocked by earthquakes in recent three years.
A temporary building is breaking down due to earthquake. Until I write this, there has been about 500 people died coz of the earthquake, and about thousands lost their houses. Source: www.padangkini.com
The suggestion actually sounded kind, but my friend whose her mom almost died of the quake, got furious.
Coz, her mom has been living in Padang much more before my friend grew up, so Padang has become her hometown.
Asking an elderly to leave the house which has been her living place for decades ain’t an easy thing to do. You must’ve been understood what I’m talking about.
If you’ve lived in the same place in more than 20 years, it’s not supposed to be easy to leave the place though you’re offered a much more glamorous place.
I think, if only the mother didn’t live in Padang.
She might live in another place, such as Medan, or probably Pekanbaru, would she be avoided from the quake which hit her last week? I’m not sure.
We know that basically Sumatera is area which full of volcanoes, whether on the land or beyond the sea, and where there is a volcano then there a quake can threat it.
So where should she live at except Sumatera, should she live in Java or Bali instead?
I laugh to imagine the solution.
On the world’s geological map, Indonesia is located on the Ring of Fire area, the world area which consists lots of volcanoes.
Please pay attention to this picture which exposes the Ring of Fire in Pacific. It’s definitely clear that Indonesia is located on the area which consists lots of volcanoes, and it’s really susceptible to have earthquakes. The other countries which also have lots of volcanoes predispose to quake are such as Philippines, Japan, Mexico, and Peru. Source: wikipedia
So if there are often earthquakes in Indonesia, then it’s supposed to be understandable.
An expert in Kompas yesterday even said, “If you wanna find the most safest places of earthquake in Indonesia, then you should run to West Borneo or southern Papua, coz those places have no volcanoes at all.”
Then, should we blame someone’s living place which often becomes an earthquake location? I think it’s unfair.
Japan has more volcanoes, and earthquake has become their daily breakfast course.
Are we gonna say that Japanese shouldn’t leave Honshu or Hokkaido?
That’s a crap, I said.
Until today, Tokyo is still one of the world’s most populated city, and still becomes one of my favorite destination to visit.
Gadang House (Indonesian: Rumah Gadang) is a West-Sumatran architectural which nowadays are harder to find coz people prefer building houses from cement. The quake ruined the rests of the gadang houses, such as one of them inside the picture. Source: www.kabarindonesia.com
Back to the case of my friend’s mother.
Is evacuating the mother from Padang to insist her for living with my friends in Jakarta still the best solution to avoid the earthquake? The answer is no.
Coz basically earthquake comes from God, it’s not a disaster which created by human.
If Lord didn’t give the quake as a test for human, then He’ll give the test in another form.
Shortly, the death will always find you, and you can hide nowhere, even though you run to the end of the world.
So if you didn’t die due to the quake at Padang, you might still gonna die in Jakarta due to another cause.
I’m amazed to the mother’s reason which refused her daughter’s plea to leave Padang.
“Padang is my home,” she said. “I can go nowhere, but here.
This is the place where I grow up, this is the place where I met your late father, this is the place where I made you and turned you into what you’ve become now.
The quake might destroy my house, but it’ll never be able to destroy my home.
The whole of my life belongs here.
I can’t leave it, coz if I did it, then I’d leave the part of my own life.”
Pay attention that the mother used the word of “home” and “house”.
The house may be just a place where you live.
But the home, is where your heart belongs.
12 responses so far
Biar dikata tempat itu aman dari gempa, tapi apa boleh buat kalo Tuhan sudah berkehendak.
Sembunyi dimanapun tetep aja gak bakal bisa…
as you said, there will be no difference if you move from sumatra to java, or bali, or maybe timor or even halmahera. because unfortunately those islands located near plate boundaries too…
yeah, we can say kalimantan is totally free from destructive earthquake, but Borneo isn’t free from another disaster like flood or forest fire, right?? haha..
anyway, Billie Joe said that.. “home is just another word for you..” hehehe..
Hampir semua daerah di Indonesia berada di batas lempengan-lempengan yang potensial bikin gempa itu. Jadi nampaknya tidak ada daerah yang aman. Bahkan kalau pun lari ke Kalimantan pun tidak banyak gunanya. Mungkin terhindar dari gempa, tapi yang jelas tidak bisa menghindar dari kabut asap seperti kata Morishige..
Dan Zippy betul juga. Kalau Tuhan mau seseorang jadi susah, maka Dia akan kasih kesusahan dalam bentuk lain, tidak selalu harus dalam bentuk gempa..
salam sobat
turut berduka dan prihatin atas musibah gempa di SUM-BAR.
semoga para korban diberikan ketabahan,,
dibalik musibah ini,ada hikmahnya.
Terima kasih buat simpatinya, Mbak Nura. Enak ya kalo di Arab sih nggak akan ada gempa ya..
Bencana memang bisa datang kapan saja. Tapi kan gak mungkin orang2 kita sarankan pindah ke wilayah yg jauh dari episentrum gempa. Gimanapun juga, bencana harus dihadapi klo memang harus terjadi. Mudah2an sih tidak ada lagi bencana yg menimbulkan banyak korban jiwa ya.
turut berduka cita dengan saudara-saudara kita di sumatera barat
Dan disini aku hanya bisa mengirim doa semoga mereka bisa bersabar menahan ujian Tuhan.
gak akan ada tempat yang aman
kalo emang udah waktunya ajal
*keknya komen gw ini kesannya tua ya vic?
Kalo bencana pasti datang lah ya, lha wong daerahnya sudah predisposisi untuk terjadinya bencana itu. Tapi korban jiwa mestinya bisa diminimalisir kalau kita mau antisipasi dengan baik. Yang pasti, pindah dari wilayah episentrum bukanlah termasuk tindakan antisipasi.
Thanx a lot buat dukacitanya.
But the home, is where your heart belongs.
Agree with this.
Tak ada tempat yang bisa menjamin keselamatan kita. Yang penting, kita selalu siap dalam kelakuan sehingga bila saatnya tiba dan kita dipanggil olehNya, kita tak perlu takut.
Hehehe..kalo mati sih kayaknya nggak ada kata siap, Mbak..