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Shuiab Khan  RSS Feed RSS feed | About
I’m all shook up because I didn’t feel a thing!

Earthquake what earthquake? The only thing that woke me up at 1am on Wednesday morning was the sound of my phone and someone blabbering about a 'massive' tremor.

"Earthquake?. . . it must only have hit your side of town mate.' I quite understand that the quake was the biggest to hit the country for over two decades but the majority of people slept through it.

And those that did feel something seemed almost nonchalant about it.

But looking at the amount of column inches given to what was not much of a quake after all, you would think that some major catastrophe had happened.

It is true the the quake was small on a world scale but major for the UK. Those honestly scared had a story to tell but I do think we need to put things into perspective.

I scrolled through the news website on Wednesday morning to find countless pictures of broken pot plants and the odd tile off someone's roof.

I sense someone in Indonesia looking at the same pictures and staring in disbelief. Earthquake horror' read the headlines as if the end of the world had been averted in some way.

I must admit I felt sorry for the couple of folk hurt and the elderly in particular.

And those caught up in the epi-centre seemed to have handled it better than someone whose glass fell over in Bangor.

I think we have a strange fascination with natural phenomena in this country and when something happens we do tend to run riot. May that be the rain, the snow or the sun.

Last year's flood affected a lot more people and there was a real lack of action for many people who are still trying to re-build their homes and lives.

Within hours of the countless comments about how lucky we were, the news breaks about the cost of the quake which is said to run into tens of millions of pounds.

Now, I know there will be many people who were honestly affected by the quake but I can sense the insurance companies having a major problem in the coming months in separating the truth from the lies.

I for one won't be claiming for the 10 minutes of sleep I lost.

2:19pm Friday 29th February 2008

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