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| Southeast Asia | |
| Sihanouk: Cambodia Saved from Tsunami by Astrologer | |
| 2005-01-02 | |
| Former Cambodian king Norodom Sihanouk says an astrologer warned him that an "ultra-catastrophic cataclysm" would strike, but that his country would be spared if proper rituals were conducted. And my path was clear... "My wife and I decided to spend several thousand dollars to organize these ceremonies so our country and our people could be spared such a catastrophe," Sihanouk, who abdicated last year, wrote on his Web site at www.sihanouknorodom.info. We spent freely of our own money, pilfered from you, Dear Citizens, on the required snake oil and the delicious snake dinner. You're welcome. [Site Link Not Working - at the moment, anyway - Ed] Cambodia was unscathed by the 10-meter (30-foot) tsunami waves generated by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake under the sea off Indonesia's Sumatra island on Dec.26. The waves rolled through the Indian Ocean, devastating coastal communities and killing more than 126,000 people. Duh! Because it was hundreds of miles away with substantial physical bodies running intereference... Sihanouk offered his deepest condolences to the families of the dead and said he would give "a very humble and extremely modest" contribution of $15,000 to international relief efforts for each of the stricken countries. Glad it was you guys. I saved us with my astrologer. You shoulda tried that... Want his number? Oh yeah, I'll send you some scratch, I promise. Indonesia was the worst hit along with Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. So I guess the astrologer either moved Sumatra and the Thai-Myanmar-Malay Peninsula in the way - or just moved the earthquake to the Indian Ocean side of Sumatra - probably the easier miracle - causing all those other people to be wiped out, instead. Either way, he's a hero in Phnom Penh - and a villian in Banda Aceh. I wonder, being so powerful and all, why he didn't just cancel the whole show...
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| Posted by:.com |
| #4 ZF, ahm... the boudaries of Pacific Ocean roughly correspond to the Pacific plate--it is flanked by Phillipines on the west. So, for all practical purposes, the Thai Sea is a part of the Indian Ocean, regardless that the whole area that is between Indonesian Archipelago on the south, Malaysian Peninsula on the west, New Guinea on the south east and Phillipines on the north east, has been a land about 12,000 years ago. The average depth there is about 60m. However, as noted, the Malaysian Peninsula stood in a way of the tidal waves to reach the coastline of Cambodia. |
| Posted by: Bugaboo 2005-01-02 6:23:47 AM |
| #3 With leaders like this, who needs Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge? Forget the astrology - it's amazing that this guy hasn't figured out that his country doesn't have any coastal areas facing the Indian Ocean. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-01-02 2:44:05 AM |
| #2 Lol! That was, indeed, a laugh out loud. Good one! |
| Posted by: .com 2005-01-02 1:01:50 AM |
| #1 Hey, it worked for the Reagans ... And remember kids, it's bad luck to be superstitious! |
| Posted by: Zenster 2005-01-02 12:58:50 AM |