Sometimes we are so caught up in our own lives that we often forget that there is a whole world out there. We have mortgages to pay, children to tend to, work deadlines to meet. Indeed, it takes nothing short of a tsunami to remind us that there are bigger things in life which need ... no ... demand, our attention.

The Dec 26 tsunami that claimed more than 150,000 lives from a slew of Asian countries was truly the most colossal disaster in living memory.

It's hard for those not personally touched by the calamity to really feel the pain and suffering of those who have lost their loved ones.

Days before the tsunami lashed our shores, my mother died of a massive stroke. It was a tragic personal lost. She was with me one day, gone the next - never to return again. Ever.

It is the same for those whose loved ones were suddenly swallowed by the sea. I cried for them as I had cried for my mom. And I'm not alone. Around the world, a sea of humanity has in recent weeks demonstrated its goodwill by selflessly donating to the tsunami relief efforts.

Nevertheless, it is ironic that governments are falling over themselves to outdo one another in pledges to the global tsunami fund when they would even not bat an eyelid as millions die silently - away from the camera flashbulbs in some unknown corner of the world - of hunger and disease.

The billions of dollars raised around the world for the victims of the Asian tsunami is truly exemplary and unprecedented. However, this is not the time to pat ourselves on our back and extol how generous the world has been.

While some may consider it insensitive to remove the rose-coloured glasses when looking at the incredible amount raised in the tsunami aid, more should - and must - be done.

Silent genocide

Here's a bit of reality check. Every day, 30,000 people die of hunger. Since the tsunami struck Asia, half a million have died of hunger. Every month, six 'hunger' tsunamis smash the shores of humankind.

The picture doesn't look any better for the survivors. About 1.2 billion out of the Third World's 4.8 billion people are living on US$1 per day, while another 2.8 billion were living on less than US$2 per day.

All this can be easily prevented. After all, the world's 358 richest individuals have a combined income equal to half of the world's population.

True, the world has cobbled together US$7 billion in tsunami aid in a matter of weeks. That's a lot of money. But it's a drop in the ocean compared to the trillions of dollars poor countries owe the rich countries.

Every month, about US$12 billion is remitted from poor nations to the developed countries in debt servicing alone. The rich took back US$3 in debt repayments for every US$1 they gave in economic aid to the poor.

So it is no wonder that in the last three decades, the disparity ratio between the richest one-fifth of the world's population and that of the poorest one-fifth has increased from 30:1 to 61:1.

In recent years, free-marketeers have shrewdly sold the world the idea that the Third World is bridging the gap - spearheaded by a dozen or so rapidly-growing tiger economies whose growth is spurred by the opportunities of globalisation - or internationalisation - of world markets.

The poor, so we were told, are fast catching up and soon there will be a happy convergence of the rich and the poor. Right. For those who are very much in touch with reality, this is pure hogwash.

Former World Bank president Robert McNamara understands this well.

'Even if the growth rate of the poor countries doubled, only seven would close the gap with the rich nations in 100 years. Only another nine would reach our level in 1,000 years,' he has said.

The rest - the other 100 or so nations - can forget about making the mark.

Human-made disaster

Clearly, the global free-market system cannot catapult most Third World economies to the income levels of developed countries. Growth does not trickle down. It trickles up.

The millions of tsunami victims will be living with the crisis' aftermath long after CNN packs up its cameras and goes home. But the world must not abandon them when media attention is no longer there.

More than ever, we must continue to tap the global goodwill unleashed by the tsunami for other similarly important causes, especially for those who are suffering not from natural disasters but human disasters.

But will the goodwill continue to flow?
Don't bet on it. CNN will move on and the tsunami victims will soon be but a faint blip on the radar screen of global consciousness. The rest of us will go back to worrying about our mortgages and other mundane - but oh! so important - crises in our lives.

When that happens - and it will be soon - it will be left to the few individuals who have been working to help the poor and the dispossessed even before the tsunami struck, to continue with their task of changing the rules on how the world is being run.

They are the ones who deserve a pat on the back.