The recent eruption of the submarine volcano and the resultant shutdown of Tonga’s telecommunication, has cast light on the impact of natural disasters on the global communication systems, especially in the tiny and distant islands.

After the threat level for the Fukushima plant was raised from 5 to 7, Japan’s claims about the situation getting stabilised are being received with a degree of scepticism.

Even as Japan has become increasingly reliant on nuclear energy, its nuclear safety record has not been very satisfactory.

The Prefectures affected the most are Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki, which represent about 7 per cent of Japan’s economy and house steel plants, oil refineries, nuclear power plants and factories manufacturing parts for cars and electronic goods.

As Japan grapples with a “nuclear emergency situation” a domestic debate has begun about whether a quake -prone country should rely on nuclear power.

The tsunami triggered by the quake swamped Sendai’s coast, picking up cars, ships and houses as it furiously surged three miles inland.

The tsunami tragedy that struck large parts of Southern Asia abutting the Bay of Bengal and the South Eastern Indian Ocean littoral has been a tragic start for the New Year. It is feared that the total death toll in the affected areas may well cross the 200,000 mark. In many ways this is a multi-national disaster with the affected countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar amongst others and stretching all the away across the ocean to the East coast of Africa.