The Indonesian volcano Merapi may not become the next global 'extinction level event' (ELE), at least not during its current period of hyperactivity, but it won't be wasting time looking at the world map again in search not only for cheaper and sunnier, but also for quieter places to begin or to keep up and running our expatriate lives. Instead of been concerned about global doomsday causes let's look at smaller roots for major personal concerns. The end of the world may still not be around the corner, but a little more precaution isn't excessive when we make our plans for the future.

Since our last warning based on accurate and daily updated scientific geological data the world hasn't become a quieter place to live, quite on the contrary, as we learn more about the planet we live on, we have all the reasons to be more preoccupied we the choices we make regarding our main and secondary residences. There won't be a return to the good old days of scientific ignorance. Knowing nothing about the gas radon or the electromagnetic field in our houses may save us a lot of headaches, but will it make our lives longer and healthier? The same goes with more visible and tangible hazards like volcanoes, earthquake, flooding, and land-sliding zones.

To get to the point, the fact that almost all local peasants living near the Indonesia volcano Merapi decided to stay despite the official warnings is a problem that should concern not only their immediate relatives. These people may or may not have any trust in the modern science, considered by them to be yet another 'Western' or 'foreign' form of antireligious subversion. The real problem coming from this behavior is that the area itself, despite the imminence of eruption, looks 'normal' when the population shows no signs of panic.

Let me for a moment jump outside this topic to illustrate the problem that such triviality of the coming disaster brings to people coming from different and far-away regions. Despite my sincere warnings to the small foreign investors in the past about the high and still rising criminal activity in some well specified areas in the post-communist world I have been frequently accused of exaggerating the real danger. The counterargument they state is most often that if local people live in such regions then the life itself shouldn't be unbearable. And when the cheap property costs are put on the equilibrium, many investors decide to take a chance.

What they do is taking by mistake the high social and economic costs for the local population of moving out of one particular area as a sign of normality. Every human being tends to rationalize its decisions in retrospect or its inability to choose by finding at the end some good reason in any situation, even the most hopeless. This however shouldn't be considered as a sign of normality, neither people that can choose should take it as a proof of a bearable life. At the end the real situation will always get the upper hand, but for the small investors then it may already be too late to back off.

Turning back to our Indonesian volcano, the quiet, we should say almost a resignation shown by the local population has a contaminating effect on many foreigners living in the nearby or in other similar regions of this country. They take this resignation before the nature, this lack of trust toward the science, and this faith in animalist spirits as a sign of normality. Let's face the fact that millions of Indonesian peasants don't have and won't have soon other choices than stay where they are, regardless of the wrath of nature. And given this hopeless situation similar to what people sentenced to death have to endure they will always try to rationalize their fears, anger, and their lack of hope. This sign of normality however shouldn't mislead those who have a choice. The volcano Merapi perhaps won't be able to destroy the planet, but for leveling out the nearby regions it will have enough power, if not this time then the next time.

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