But so finally, what do the Sea Gypsies have to do with the flotsam and jetsam of Detroit?

For a moment, the auditor became a sort of poet. "The 'Sea Gypsies' are nomadic people who live in a cluster of islands off Burma (Myanmar) and the west coast of Thailand. They have survived using a combination of their experience of the sea and holistic perception."

According to Dr. Norman Doidge, when the giant tsunami struck the Indian Ocean five years ago, killing hundreds of thousands, not one of the Sea Gypsies died. They had all fled to very high ground or deep out to sea. Later, one was asked why they lived, while other island people, thought to be equally sea-savvy, had been killed.

The gypsy snorted. "They were not looking at anything. They saw nothing. They looked at nothing. They don't know how to look."
(http://www.metrotimes.com/news/story.asp?id=14604)