The Earthquake on Mount Kinabalu

    Andrew and I went over to England last week to visit his mother and it was on Friday when we went down to Starbucks to get some wifi and catch up on emails that I suddenly saw lots of messages sent from Sabah! An earthquake had struck Ranau at 7.15 am 5th June at 6.0 magnitude and there were landslides on Mount Kinabalu! My first thought was that I knew someone climbing the mountain but fortunately for her it was the day before. I had to contact all my mentors just to check that no one had been up the mountain and mercifully most of them were off the island when it happened. However as you may know there were eighteen people died up the mountain, four guides and two, Singaporeans that were only confirmed dead yesterday. I have been in contact with many of my teachers and friends around Ranau and it seems that there is some structural damage and cracks in some schools, the mosque and the hospital but nothing major as most of the buildings are low. It is interesting people's perspectives who are used to earthquakes, like New Zealanders and Indonesians, told me that it wasn't more than just a few seconds of the houses shaking whereas other people who had never lived through one found it very scary. A very long time ago I lived through one in Afghanistan but it was over before I realised what was happening.

Sunrise at the top of the world 2012

  Anyway as with all natural disasters there is discussion and controversy and sadly the earthquake managed to get on the BBC news not because of the tragic deaths but simply because of the stupid insensitive actions of some tourists who decided it would be amusing to take their clothes off. I noticed that my post on my blog called Aki Nabalu has been looked at a lot since the earthquake which explains the significance of the mountain to the people. Mount Kinabalu is considered by the Dusun people to be sacred and where the souls of people go to rest when they die. There is a war memorial in Kundasang facing the mountain for all the prisoners of war who lost their lives in the Death March in 1945 and this is explained at the memorial and to the climbers of the mountain before they ascend the majestic mount.

Throughout the colonial period conquerors usually have managed to ignore the local people's beliefs and feelings which is exactly what the British Hugh Low did when he climbed to the top of Mount Kinabalu in 1851. To appease the disruption of the dead souls it was agreed that a sacrifice of a white cockerel I believe, was made before each climb and this is still adhered to but reduced to once a year now. There are very few people here now that are animists but in times of tragedy we all look for something or someone to blame and I haven't heard anyone honestly think that the earthquake was caused by these ignorant tourists but more of an outrage that people would think that it is acceptable human behaviour to do such an insensitive act.

The donkey ears that are broken after the earthquake

I leave you with this quote from the brother of one of the brave guides who lost his life in the earthquake.
"It is not about laws or superstition, but about having mutual respect among human beings. As a Christian, I too do not believe in superstition, but I adhere to the advice and beliefs of the elders out of respect. It is part of being humans, we don't do things that will offend our fellow-human beings whether they are Muslims, Christian or Animists. This is something we are taught here."

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