Tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of the 2004, Indian Ocean Tsunami. Swedish Television will tomorrow remember the 26th of December 2004, with many different shows from the areas where the Tsunami changed so many people’s lives. I would like to send a thought to those who lost someone, but not just the Swedish families, but ALL families who lost a relative of friend. Some of the local villages or towns were completely destroyed and it was almost impossible to find any belongings worth saving in the ruins after the tsunami. Surviving tourists could go back home whereas many of the citizens close to the Indian Ocean not only lost relatives and friends, they also lost all their belongings, their homes, their chances to make an income etc. To make a fresh restart isn’t easy in such a situation. It is more likely that you end up in a post traumatic stress attack.

According to U.S Geological Survey as many as 227898 died as a result of the Tsunami. To me all of them are important. Each and every one of them. Not just the 543 who happened to be Swedish citizens.   None of them is less important than the other. One single person’s death causes a termendous loss within a family and we all need to find ways to deal with losses of different kinds. I wasn’t on the site, but watched it all on TV. After a while I found it tremendously sad that most of the coverage in Swedish TV was focused on the 543 Swedes, although they are a minority… In order to get the whole picture we needed to check international newspapers online or find out through friends abroad in what way the whole region was affected. I understand why the 543 lost Swedes are important to the Swedish Television, but I don’t understand why the other 227355 aren’t. Tomorrow I will remember all of them and send a thought to their families.