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by Dr. Michael Bourk, University of Canberra

Narratives are useful for us to make sense of the world, what happens in it and where we are located in the events. Similarly narratives of the tsunami and its aftermath are psychologically and sociologically useful for us. They present opportunities to learn and grow as individuals and communities.

A tsunami survivor looks out of her tsunami-hit house in Kallar on east coast. REUTERS

However a singular narrative lacks the detail or power to explain the full story. Simply because there is no full story but a collection of stories and perspectives from which we may glean useful insights. Briefly let's examine some of the common narratives.

The tsunami as agent of reminder: Nature's reminder of the futility of human petty squabbles in the face of overwhelming destructive power.

Insights put human concerns of rights, struggles for just causes and political manoeuvring into perspective. President Chandrika Kumaratunga related this narrative when she addressed the nation at the candlelight ceremony held recently.

It is a powerful narrative that challenges dissenting groups in society to reflect on their priorities. It challenges governments to reconsider their agendas also. Another central theme to the omnipotent nature narrative is its undiscriminating exercise of power and destruction. No one is right or wrong; all are equally destroyed.

Restrictions, could be fatalistic. Paralyse people from building the desire or motivation for finding political, social and technological solutions to current challenges.

The tsunami as agent of divine judgement: God's lesson in philosophy for the material secular world of modernity.

The Muslim leader at the candlelight ceremony seems to have expressed the unspoken opinions of many that the events of December 26th carry a spiritual message.

The damage to property and tragedy in human loss has caused many here and around the world to re-focus on the meaning of life and ponder the futility of spending all their time amassing personal wealth and gain without wondering why.

A front page of a newspaper carries the picture of a child in a prayerful position beside a single word, Why. On the same page a story is carried describing the unusual phenomena that most religious statues and buildings, icons of spirituality were left undamaged.

Again the message is beneficial if we use the narrative to revisit notions of what it is to be good and just and caring to our fellow citizens. The narrative's restriction is that it may also suffer from socially paralysing fatalism if taken to the extreme.

Or, others could take the opportunity to compare the intrinsic nature and power of different deities, as voiced in the concerns from a 23-year-old science student:

'For humanity's sake, can't we just accept that the shifting of tectonic plates led to the tsunami, instead of playing' My God is nicer/bigger/more vengeful than yours.'

The tsunami as measurement of disaster and aid need

Sometimes the media provide narratives in the form of news angles. The tsunami as measuring device is an example and presents another common narrative emerging from the tragedy.

In fact, the time-line following the tsunami is a trail of figures in flux. From CNN to local media, the death toll and figures of aid relief have rolled over like two giant odometers running in parallel.

The relief aid figures reinforce the tsunami as measurement of disaster story. The narrative helps to put the disaster in perspective with other natural disasters. It also helps to compare aid figures with military budgets (US$200 billion in Iraq spent by US and Britain in military action), which some have not been slow to point out.

However the narrative of tsunami as measure stick of tears and care also has limitations. For example, the figures don't show the personal grief and tragedy. They can be used for political mileage also. The US were criticised at first for offering $35 million in relief aid.

A day later, the pledge, accompanied by a number of media stories praising the generosity, was revised to $350 million. Another problem with aid figures quoted is that they are not linked to actual assistance or timelines of monetary distribution.

The tsunami as unknown visitor

Another narrative is the tsunami as unknown visitor.

The lesson from the narrative is that we must learn about the stranger and ways of relating. We must be better prepared next time.

This is the form of establishing warning systems, emergency evacuation procedures and community rebuilding methods that take the phenomenon into account during planning stages. A possible restriction of the narrative is that we spend all our time learning about Mr. Tsunami that we ignore Ms. Earthquake or Master Fire.

Furthermore the allocation of resources to safeguarding against the effects of occasional natural disasters may leave little left over for everyday problems of addressing other social and community needs such as those of marginalised groups such as the poor and people with disabilities.

The tsunami as opportunity

The final narrative that I suggest is emerging of the tsunami as opportunity: as opportunity for constructive action as well as exploitation. Stories related to both the best and worst of human nature are told in the wake of the tsunami.

Individuals, communities and nations have poured out generosity. Frequently those with the least have given the most.

The world's media have reported with amazement of the generosity of Sri Lankans to their national kinsfolk in need. Sadly reports of children taken from relief camps by strangers amidst fears of exploitation circulate too.

Inevitably, widespread disasters present narratives of opportunity that address the strengths and weaknesses of human nature.

Similarly the tsunami is a narrative of opportunity to develop innovation and invention for rebuilding communities and reconstructing destroyed infrastructure.

Let's turn from the narratives of the disaster, which to a greater or lesser degree address ways of believing, understanding and learning in times of natural disaster and focus on the immediate project of rebuilding the damaged communities.

It's the narratives of reconstruction that I wish to focus on including tensions created by what appear as two different approaches. Next I want to suggest a practical approach to assist the reconstruction process and resolve the tensions created by conflicting narratives.

Narratives of reconstruction

The narrative is presented clearly by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM):

"This may be a golden opportunity to rebuild the nation by developing a visionary and a well-focused strategic plan for the country specifically for the affected areas to be developed as ultra modern cities".

The SLIM president also suggests that the affected areas could be modelled on cities such as Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The narrative has a number of appealing aspects.

It suggests strategic planning using world's best class standard, as opposed to haphazard construction; commercial progress attracting international investors and improved conditions of health and living for families and communities.

However, the picture is like the viewer who can only see the young, modern lady in gestalt. The viewer cannot see the old lady, a traditional lady, a resilient lady who emerges from what the young lady is not.

Rebuild the coastal communities to preserve traditional values and way of life

In other words the narrative of ultra-modernity fails to account for the narrative of traditional cultural values.

I suspect that it is a narrative that beats strong in the hearts of the thousands of fishermen and their families that lost their homes to the tsunami. You see although the tsunami swept away many thousands of lives, buildings and other structures of civilisation - it did not remove the cultural memories of the communities affected.

People have a way of living and doing things that will affect the success of any replacement structures and processes. As Roe observed, the resilience of narratives mean they often endure when other facts challenge the validity of the story.

However support for the narrative of cultural preservation also come from what appear at first as surprising quarters, such as World Bank President, James Wolfensohn:

In Sri Lanka he said, 'there was a suggestion that displaced fishermen should be put into three-storey apartments, perhaps a kilometre from the beach, with hot and cold water showers.

"It sounds great", Mr. Wolfensohn said, "Unless you're a fisherman" whose traditional lifestyle, he pointed out, was to live on or near the beach and may be next to his boat."

Perhaps it is not so surprising that the head of an institution responsible for making effective investments in so-called developed and developing countries is aware of the power of cultural inertia within local communities to changes imposed from outside.

The Gujarat experience

We can see the two competing narratives of modernity and preserving cultural traditional in the experience of disaster in India. An earthquake in Gujarat in 2001 killed more than 20,000 people and destroyed a million homes (ITDG 2005,p1-2). Vishakaka's organisation ITDG was involved in the rebuilding program.

Substandard housing structures constituted most of the original buildings and regional planners resolved to construct modern concrete buildings to avoid a recurring tragedy from future natural disaster.

Unfortunately some weeks after completion, the engineers and planners discovered the villagers sleeping beside their new homes, which functioned as expensive store houses for their few possessions.

The people feared the concrete structures would cause greater personal injury than their thatched huts in the event of another earthquake.

The lesson is that you cannot impose new cultural artifacts on those who hold different world-views. The people had no experience of concrete. It was beyond their personal and cultural experience.

Furthermore, it transcends that concrete is not the most resilient material in earthquake prone areas. ITDG used the experience of those living in earthquake-prone Peru to inform their approach to rebuilding homes in Gujarat. Quincha homes are made from shock-proof timber frames from interwoven branches or bamboo.

The local people were consulted and included in the design and construction process. Furthermore they adopted the Quincha-type homes as part of their culture.

Searching for a metanarrative

How do we resolve the tension created in the narratives between the young lady of modernity and the older matron of tradition.

The Quincha-house example provides some clues but first let's look for an intertext from both to create a metanarrative. An element threading around both narratives is the perception of real or imagined risk - albeit with different foci.

For the visionary that dreams of reconstructed regions of ultra-modernity, it is the risk of recurring tragedy, lost economic and market opportunities, rebuilding backward infrastructure, and haphazard planning that creates inefficiencies in the economy.

For the traditionalist that wants to rebuild life as they knew it, it is the risk of change, the loss of identity and cultural values, the loss of the past and their livelihood.

One possible solution, as experienced in the Gujarat example is to establish ways of recording the perceptions of risk, the cultural values, the ways of seeing, believing and doing.

In other words, a process of consultation and participation that allows for the sharing of narratives, from which local metanarratives may emerge that bypass the tensions of individual narratives and present new ways of seeing, being and doing for all.

Consultative-participative processes are not limited to group discussions around a table, although it is useful.

The basis for dialogue may be established using other creative methods, one of which I believe assisted in the outpouring of generosity and offers of assistance from around the world. Modern technology can assist greatly in the project.

(Condensed from a lecture delivered at the Mass Communications Department, University of Kelaniya.)

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