A tsunami killed thousands of people in South Asia. An earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused the largest tsunami of 40 years, killing over 200,000 people in 13 countries. Most of the deaths, some 128,000, occurred in Indonesia.

International campaigns were launched to alleviate the damage suffered by these countries, but it was reported that many businessmen and politicians took advantage of the natural disaster to carry out plans that the resistance of citizens could not do before.

The coasts literally cleansed the seas, whether for hotels, housing, casinos or for the construction tourism industry, according to Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine.