Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - And being a natural disaster, the limits of our ability to anticipate and prevent are all too obvious.
The tsunami detection monitoring in place in the Pacific could certainly have helped if it had covered the Indian Ocean too. But many of the communities lost in the tidal wave were unlikely to have been able to receive the warning and respond within the time required.
Friend and SNP colleague Malcolm Fleming now works for OXFAM Scotland and was flown out to Sri Lanka soon after the event. He has been telling of the pain and loss among the survivors he has met on the BBC web site.
But for us the question must be, how can we help the survivors?
Our fishermen know the power of the sea. They stand ready to provide practical assistance.
Highland NHS staff showed the way with their donation of a day's pay to relief efforts. And the SNP proposal to do likewise in our Parliaments is gaining increasing support.
We recall the horror of atomic bombs at the end of the war with Japan. The bomb blasts killed far fewer than this wave. But in the aftermath many more died. Sixty years on we still feel the horror.
As individuals we could do little to prevent the natural event that brought death to Asia. But we can each do our bit to minimise further harm to vulnerable people and communities.
Scotland in the World
“For a people to be independent and self-governing, they must control the basic communication tools of the society they inhabit.”
Not my words but a statement from New York City Council. But words I find easy to agree with. And if they are true for New York, they are surely true for Scotland.
Now of course communication comes in a variety of forms.
We have rich and diverse newspaper industry. Rather too much is owned and controlled from furth of Scotland. But enough is truly local to ensure diversity of viewpoint and independence of thought.
Radio flourishes long after the time many had thought it would have withered and died. And from community level – think of Kinnaird Radio – to Northsound and MFR, Scottish operation and control is there and active.
And Grampian TV, with sister station STV down south, report our local affairs.
BBC Scotland has a distinct identity but receives much less than its fair share of BBC spending.
But in 2005 possible take-overs threaten Scottish control of radio and TV.
The internet is the fastest growing, and least regulated, area of communication. And with most of the north-east and much of Scotland enabled for broadband, new opportunities exist for Scots entrepreneurs.
To quote the New York City Council again, “As we enter a time where most person-to-person, person-to-group, business, and government communication takes place over the Internet, an independent, vibrant, self-governing community must control the fundamental elements of that communication network. Domain names are a key part of that control.”
What they mean is that a distinct independent identity works on the internet just as it does elsewhere.
Wherever you see a web or email address ending “dot UK”, you know where the base is.
But although Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey also have their own identities on the internet, Scotland does not.
With recent changes to the way names are allocated on the internet, it would be possible for Scotland to bid, as New York City Council resolved to, for a new “dot” name.
As the NY Council said, “a dot NYC will make our community more governable, provide opportunities for small businesses, raise city revenue, and make navigating the Internet easier for our residents, prospective tourists, and businesses.”
And what makes sense for a city, ought to make sense for a country like ours with a First Minister who keeps says we should be “the best small country in the world”.
But we need our identity on the internet.
