Tsunami

Jesus... the Tsunami death toll is now estimated at over eighty thousand. I don't have anything substantive to say about this... it's just too much to fathom. They're not even finished counting. As if it hadn't been ravaged enough by the Indonesian War Machine, the people of East Timor have been badly affected by this... and it seems possible that, grotesque as it is, the Indonesian military may use this as cover to further tighten its brutal grip on the region of Aceh.

It's also possible that the disaster will give the impetus required for the US to 'normalise' relations with Indonesia and pave the way for a restoration of all military aid to Jakarta. It doesn't take a particularly pessimistic turn of mind to see that this disaster may only be the tip of the iceberg for the people of the region.