Global Miscellany:

Tsunami New Year resolutions

BY M.V. MUHSIN

THE young widow told me her story during my visit to Hambantota soon after the tragedy: her husband saw the wave coming at him. As the train was stopped on the tracks nearby, he ran for cover into the coach. Minutes later, the train itself was dashed, the coaches wrapped around each other. Her husband? ..and then she choked, with a lump in her throat...speechless.

Like all Sri Lankans even in distress, she had a faint smile, but the strain on her face and the sorrow in her eyes showed the irreparable emotional damage that had been caused on her.

But life had to go on. And so, in the midst of a refugee camp, packed with 30-40 tents, a husband and wife put up a make-shift boutique with a single table and two improvised cookers. Above this was a sign "Hotel de Tsunami"!

And sharing was the ethos of the affected: one small girl had, according to a village elder, lost both her parents, her brothers and her sister, her home and her possessions.

She was living with relatives in a makeshift hut. I looked at her with a heavy heart as she was drinking from a bottle of cream soda. She met my eyes, smiled, and offered me her drink!

Though a year has gone by, these images still remain in memory and in one's heart. They convey the story of emotional and psychological trauma, of impressive resilience to get back on one's feet, and of the sprit of sharing.

The outpouring of emotions during the observance of the Tsunami Anniversary from Banda Ache in Indonesia, Hambantota in Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu in India, and in Phuket in Thailand has been overwhelming.

Government leaders have spoken and pledged, once again, to move with all deliberate speed-a clich, that also observes it's own anniversary!

Reports of progress and the lack of progress also makes the scorecard at best a "C" on a scale of A to D, with A being the top score. Masking this performance are two extremes.

On the positive extreme, financial pledges and those secured get an "A": Sri Lanka's estimated need was on the order of United States Dollars 2.2 Billion (Rs. 220 Billion); the amount pledged and secured is in fact more, US Dollars 3.0 Billion (Rs.300 Billion); and for Indonesia the need was US Dollars 5.0 Billion. Funds pledged were US$ 6.5 Billion, of which US $ 4.5 Billion is secured and available.

These funds include multilateral and bilateral lenders, international organisations and non-governmental organizations. No long-term reconstruction effort in living memory has had such a show of tangible support.

On the negative extreme the "D" (fail mark) goes to Housing. More than three-fourths of the houses destroyed by the Tsunami in Indonesia and Sri Lanka are yet to be fully rebuilt.

The permanent housing need in Ache and Nias in Indonesia is 140,000; in Sri Lanka the need has been put at 103,000. It does not take a statistician to visit the affected areas and note that many of the tens of thousands who lost their homes still live in camps.

The A and B grades go to the local communities, NGOs-both local and foreign-and faith organisations who rose to the demand for relief and reconstruction. Even in the face of unfair criticism, the NGO's have especially shown their courage and sincerity to help the affected.

As critics remain in denial, this assessment may be contentious as would the statistics referred to. But that is neither here nor there. What is real is that there remains a huge humanitarian and reconstruction crisis that should hold the leaderships of the affected countries accountable.

It was heartening that President Mahinda Rajapakse pledged to give the reconstruction effort the highest priority and his personal attention. In other words, what this should mean is that Government will hold itself accountable to fully deliver the results before stock is taken on December 26, 2006.

This will require holding the feet of Ministers, officials and organisations to the fire. No excuses will be entertained. The New Year's Resolution should be "Deliver or Depart" (to paraphrase the Motto of Royal College, Disce aut Discede - Learn or Depart).

While the reconstruction of houses, schools, health centres, community centres and business premises are surely on the blueprints of action, the psychological footprint of disasters is much bigger and deeper than the physical imprint.

As President Bill Clinton put it on his recent visit to Sri Lanka "there is a lot of emotional damage not easily visible. I notice the sadness in their eyes"... just as in the story of the widow that I recount in this column.

An expert in this area, Sri Lankan Dr. David Ratnavale, says " unhealed mental and psychological wounds fester, cause disability and behavioral disturbances. Unresolved, it eats into the soul of the community and may spread to sour the nation".

Dr. Ratnavale is well regarded for his expertise in emotional and psychosocial dimensions of wars and disasters. He has been actively engaged both in Sri Lanka and in the United States to muster global support in this field.

Given the interest that this aspect of societal trauma has generated, Sri Lanka could well champion, with international support, the establishment of a Global Centre for Trauma Response, that will bring together all international and non-governmental expertise, and offer to house it in the country.

Whether it is unmanaged water resources that can inundate the worlds deltas, clouds of toxic emissions that float across everyone's sky, one infected bird's flight path that could cause a pandemic far and wide, there is a need to be ready to address the "softer" aspects of disaster management that affect the human mind. This Centre can be a focal point and work in tandem with organizations such as the WHO.

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On a lighter note, while on the subject of New Year Resolutions, excessive food and lack of exercise can also have a Tsunami-like effect on one's figure.

According to Dr. Michael O'Shea of the American College of Sports Medicine, walking just 11 miles a week can keep you from gaining fat-including visceral fat, the harmful type that wraps around your organs, increases your waist size and is associated with diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Just 30 minutes of moderate exercise six days a week is equal to walking 11 miles.

Onward and forward!

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