Rojak and Cocktail: Malaysian floods subside but struggle goes on

The flood situation in Malaysia has improved, but 74,000 people remain at relief centres and victims face months without electricity and the threat from crocodiles, officials said Monday.

Welfare officials said hundreds had returned home in the worst affected southern state of Johor, where seven people have died, but at least 65,500 remained at evacuation centres.

"We have heard of crocodile sightings. We urge the public to remain cautious," Koto Tinggi police chief Muhamad Shamsuddin said.

The situation in the flood-stricken areas in Johor, Melaka, Pahang and Terengganu generally improved this afternoon but ironically a recurrence of floods is looming.

In Indonesia, the worst floods in decades have hit Indonesia's Aceh province, killing at least 114 people and devastating communities, as the region at the northern tip of Sumatra island struggled to recover from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

Instead of tree-high waves smashing into coastal villages at jetliner speeds, Acehnese this Christmas have been battered by days of torrential downpours that have caused raging floodwaters to submerge tens of thousands of houses and wash away roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

Indonesia's state-run Antara newsagency said 700 soldiers had been sent to the province to boost relief efforts after the disaster toll rose to 114, with hundreds missing and 170,000 people forced from their homes.

Witnesses said many houses were submerged to roof-tops.

Some families were trapped on the roofs of their homes, witnesses said.

The death toll as of Sunday from more than three days of rain-triggered flooding on Sumatra was at least 87, with dozens more reported missing, while seven people have been killed in neighboring Malaysia, officials said.

More than 150,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in both countries.

The worst-hit region was in Tamiyang district in Aceh province in Northern Sumatra, where rescuers found 60 bodies on Sunday, said Nurdin Jos, an Aceh government spokesman.

Aceh was the region worst hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami, but this week's flooding was in areas unaffected by that disaster

Pope: Even modern man, pleasure-seeking and desperate, needs Saviour

In his Christmas message, Benedict XVI said modern man, who is prepared to conquer the universe and who feels master of history, also suffers due to war, hunger and injustice. But the Saviour is needed also by those who are incapable of taking responsibility for their lives, those who are alone and those who “choose death in the belief that they are celebrating life”.

The process of dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, a free and democratic future in Lebanon, an end to violence in Iraq and Africa, especially in Darfur, and the yearning for peace in Sri Lanka and Latin America. These are great sorrows of the world that Benedict XVI placed “in the hands of the divine Child of Bethlehem” in a Christmas message read from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica from where blessings are given. The “Urbi et Orbi” blessing was followed by Christmas greetings in 62 languages.

There were at least 60,000 people in the square alongside the crib and Christmas tree with its 20,000 lights, together with bands of the carabinieri and Swiss Guards playing anthems of the Vatican and Italy.

Addressing those present and millions of people from around the world who followed the broadcast of the benediction, the pope said that even modern man, who is all set to conquer the universe, who has mastered the Earth and who feels safe and self-sufficient, needs the Saviour. This is revealed in the “heart-rending cry for help” that arises from so many injuries of war and violence, and also from those who are “misled by facile prophets of happiness”, who are “incapable of accepting responsibility”, who turn to drugs as a solution for “the tunnel of loneliness” and “who choose death in the belief that they are celebrating life”.

Here is the text of the Christmas message of Benedict XVI:

“Salvator noster natus est in mundo” (Missale Romanum).

Our Saviour is born to the world!" During the night, in our Churches, we again heard this message that, notwithstanding the passage of the centuries, remains ever new. It is the heavenly message that tells us to fear not, for "a great joy" has come "to all the people" (Lk 1:10). It is a message of hope, for it tells us that, on that night over two thousand years ago, there "was born in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:11). The Angel of Christmas announced it then to the shepherds out on the hills of Bethlehem; today the Angel repeats it to us, to all who dwell in our world: "The Saviour is born; he is born for you! Come, come, let us adore him!".

But does a "Saviour" still have any value and meaning for the men and women of the third millennium? Is a "Saviour" still needed by a humanity which has reached the moon and Mars and is prepared to conquer the universe; for a humanity which knows no limits in its pursuit of nature’s secrets and which has succeeded even in deciphering the marvellous codes of the human genome? Is a Saviour needed by a humanity which has invented interactive communication, which navigates in the virtual ocean of the internet and, thanks to the most advanced modern communications technologies, has now made the Earth, our great common home, a global village? This humanity of the twenty-first century appears as a sure and self-sufficient master of its own destiny, the avid proponent of uncontested triumphs.

So it would seem, yet this is not the case. People continue to die of hunger and thirst, disease and poverty, in this age of plenty and of unbridled consumerism. Some people remain enslaved, exploited and stripped of their dignity; others are victims of racial and religious hatred, hampered by intolerance and discrimination, and by political interference and physical or moral coercion with regard to the free profession of their faith. Others see their own bodies and those of their dear ones, particularly their children, maimed by weaponry, by terrorism and by all sorts of violence, at a time when everyone invokes and acclaims progress, solidarity and peace for all. And what of those who, bereft of hope, are forced to leave their homes and countries in order to find humane living conditions elsewhere? How can we help those who are misled by facile prophets of happiness, those who struggle with relationships and are incapable of accepting responsibility for their present and future, those who are trapped in the tunnel of loneliness and who often end up enslaved to alcohol or drugs? What are we to think of those who choose death in the belief that they are celebrating life?

How can we not hear, from the very depths of this humanity, at once joyful and anguished, a heart-rending cry for help? It is Christmas: today "the true light that enlightens every man" (Jn 1:9) came into the world. "The word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14), proclaims the Evangelist John. Today, this very day, Christ comes once more "unto his own", and to those who receive him he gives "the power to become children of God"; in a word, he offers them the opportunity to see God’s glory and to share the joy of that Love which became incarnate for us in Bethlehem. Today "our Saviour is born to the world", for he knows that even today we need him. Despite humanity’s many advances, man has always been the same: a freedom poised between good and evil, between life and death . It is there, in the very depths of his being, in what the Bible calls his "heart", that man always needs to be "saved". And, in this post-modern age, perhaps he needs a Saviour all the more, since the society in which he lives has become more complex and the threats to his personal and moral integrity have become more insidious. Who can defend him, if not the One who loves him to the point of sacrificing on the Cross his only-begotten Son as the Saviour of the world?

"Salvator noster": Christ is also the Saviour of men and women today. Who will make this message of hope resound, in a credible way, in every corner of the earth? Who will work to ensure the recognition, protection and promotion of the integral good of the human person as the condition for peace, respecting each man and every woman and their proper dignity? Who will help us to realize that with good will, reasonableness and moderation it is possible to avoid aggravating conflicts and instead to find fair solutions? With deep apprehension I think, on this festive day, of the Middle East, marked by so many grave crises and conflicts, and I express my hope that the way will be opened to a just and lasting peace, with respect for the inalienable rights of the peoples living there. I place in the hands of the divine Child of Bethlehem the indications of a resumption of dialogue between the Israelis and Palestinians, which we have witnessed in recent days, and the hope of further encouraging developments. I am confident that, after so many victims, destruction and uncertainty, a democratic Lebanon, open to others and in dialogue with different cultures and religions, will survive and progress. I appeal to all those who hold in their hands the fate of Iraq, that there will be an end to the brutal violence that has brought so much bloodshed to the country, and that every one of its inhabitants will be safe to lead a normal life. I pray to God that in Sri Lanka the parties in conflict will heed the desire of the people for a future of brotherhood and solidarity; that in Darfur and throughout Africa there will be an end to fratricidal conflicts, that the open wounds in that continent will quickly heal and that the steps being made towards reconciliation, democracy and development will be consolidated. May the Divine Child, the Prince of Peace, grant an end to the outbreaks of tension that make uncertain the future of other parts of the world, in Europe and in Latin America.

"Salvator noster": this is our hope; this is the message that the Church proclaims once again this Christmas day. With the Incarnation, as the Second Vatican Council stated, the Son of God has in some way united himself with each man and women (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22). The birth of the Head is also the birth of the body, as Pope Saint Leo the Great noted. In Bethlehem the Christian people was born, Christ’s mystical body, in which each member is closely joined to the others in total solidarity. Our Saviour is born for all. We must proclaim this not only in words, but by our entire life, giving the world a witness of united, open communities where fraternity and forgiveness reign, along with acceptance and mutual service, truth, justice and love.

A community saved by Christ. This is the true nature of the Church, which draws her nourishment from his Word and his Eucharistic Body. Only by rediscovering the gift she has received can the Church bear witness to Christ the Saviour before all people. She does this with passionate enthusiasm, with full respect for all cultural and religious traditions; she does so joyfully, knowing that the One she proclaims takes away nothing that is authentically human, but instead brings it to fulfilment. In truth, Christ comes to destroy only evil, only sin; everything else, all the rest, he elevates and perfects. Christ does not save us from our humanity, but through it; he does not save us from the world, but came into the world, so that through him the world might be saved (cf. Jn 3:17).

Dear brothers and sisters, wherever you may be, may this message of joy and hope reach your ears: God became man in Jesus Christ, he was born of the Virgin Mary and today he is reborn in the Church. He brings to all the love of the Father in heaven. He is the Saviour of the world! Do not be afraid, open your hearts to him and receive him, so that his Kingdom of love and peace may become the common legacy of each man and woman. Happy Christmas!