What Ever Happened to Cultural Memory?

I'm pissed off about the tsunami because I don't think 100,00 people needed to die. Who's to blame? Everyone. The lack of an adequate warning system is appalling. It's appalling that governments aren't more proactive in evicting people who insist on squatting in danger zones. And the response of emergency personnel in Thailand was egregious. But what to make of this whole "curiosity" bizness?

The thing I don't get is, how come caution doesn't overcome curiosity in coastal villages with a centuries-long tradition of living off the sea? Don't adults know what a tsunami looks like, even if they've never seen one personally (shouldn't the collective unconscious work on coding some information about natural disasters, rather than about having a bigger penis than your father)? And don't they know to tell their kids?

Am I being a racist here?