The fanfare of Christmas is over and many people yesterday probably awoke to singing headaches and groans as a result of the weekend’s over indulgence.

Yet the scene was different precisely two years ago when over 230,000 lives were obliterated in the blink of an eye. On Boxing Day 2004, people woke and turned on the news to see what can only be termed as a catastrophe of biblical proportions. A magnitude 9 earthquake ripped open the ocean floor in Asia, sending massive tsunamis to nearby coastlines at jet liner speeds. Whole villages were destroyed, as were some regions. Over 100,000 died in Aceh province alone. The terrifying images of people being swept away still haunt many – as do images of lost European children who survived the disaster.

While we woke up yesterday to confront our own self-inflicted woes, thousands of people in Asia woke with a different mission, to grieve their dead friends and relatives.

The power to forget is an amazing capacity that the human spirit possesses. One would think that such an event would long live in our memories, but if we were truthful, how many of us can hold up our hand and say that our thoughts went back to that tragic event? The truth be told, not many of us probably.

Asia was ripped apart on that tragic day two years ago, and remembering what happened serves to remind us that we really are insignificant in the greater spectrum of life.

In this day and age, the human race suffers from the deadly “Titanic” syndrome. We think that we are above everything else, yet in reality we simply delude ourselves. Just as the “unsinkable” Titanic was destroyed, so were parts of Asia, as were many thousands of lives.

The saying is true, complacency costs lives. Not much could be done on that day, and even with the installation of whatever technology, one doubts its effectiveness.

In the grander scheme of things, early warning systems should at least serve for purposes of peace of mind.

But at the end of the day, we just have to accept that we are nothing more than inhabitants of this planet and are simply at the mercy of Mother Nature’s whim.

Life is indeed precious and can be taken away from us at a moment’s notice as the events in South East Asia showed.

While it is not the same issue, we must always be vigilant and we must be responsive to anything that comes our way. That also holds true for our tiny little country, we must always be alert and to be on guard for challenges that are thrown out way. Many people doubted our capacity to deal with, for example, EU membership – but we managed. We managed because we were responsive – because we recognised the challenge ahead and that is the way life is going to be from now on. Life goes at such a fast pace nowadays, that we cannot stop and dither for one moment, too much is at stake.

But we should always remember that every day we open our eyes and are able to continue living our daily lives is a blessing. So much can be taken away from us in an instant – just as Boxing Day 2004 proved. We should never forget that day and it should serve us as a lesson. Lest we forget.