Two years on...

It's been two years since the Tsunami that devastated large parts of South-East Asia. Many people have gone back in to set up new homes, and new ways to survive. But how much work has really been done to make the journey back to normalcy as pleasant as possible? Destruction looms even now in many areas, and bear testimony to what went over them. Surely, new settlers will find it very unsettling to set shop in such locales?

But more importantly, are we as a civilisation better equipped to handle emergencies of this kind, now that we have experience of how wrong it can get? Last heard, neither India nor any of the of the other affected nations had any warning mechanisms installed that can forewarn of impending catastrophe. Should such systems not be installed on the double? Surely, the cost incurred in installing them is much less than the losses incurred in rehabilitation of the survivors, loss due to tourism, and rebuilding and reclaiming lost areas?

I wonder whose responsibility it is... engineers and researchers who actually come up with new methods to combat and survive nature, world bodies such as the UN, or the respective governments?