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Miles
beneath the waters of the Indian Ocean, a massive
piece of the Earth's crust had heaved, buckled and
shifted. Along a fracture zone hundreds of miles
long, it moved, releasing pent-up energy equivalent
to the power of more than 1,000 atomic bombs. The
waters above reared up and crashed down, creating
a wave that was now racing across the ocean at 500
mph - Barbara Demick
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Anthony McIntyre • 2 January 2005
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Normally,
on those rare occasions when our home heating system
packs in I fume and vent spleen on the dubious joys
of modern technology. When it happened on a rain
and snow swept New Year's Day, there was little
else to do but be philosophical. We were hardly
in a predicament - roof over our heads, an electric
fire and oil filled radiator providing alternatives
sources of heat; there was plenty of food and fresh
water. Well-fed, well-sheltered and dry, try telling
somebody just hit by a tsunami that we had a problem
and they would think that despite being in a worldly
Heaven we could still find something to complain
about. How do you tell a woman in Banda Aceh out
searching for her eleven children whisked away by
the tsunami that your oil central heating going
on the blink is a problem?
This
time last year it was Bam in Iran. Now it is the
turn of twelve other counties of which Indonesia,
Sri Lanka, India and Thailand were the hardest hit.
Events like this put the world into some sort of
perspective. More than 80,000 dead in Indonesia,
4,500 in Thailand, 28,000 in Sri Lanka, 10,000 in
India and 27,000 in the other countries affected.
The death toll has now surpassed that from a cyclone
that devastated Bangladesh in 1991, which claimed
the lives of almost 140,000 people, prompting U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan to state, 'this is
an unprecedented global catastrophe, and it requires
an unprecedented global response.'
Great
effort has gone in to raising funds for the victims.
Our door rapped the other evening. I answered it
to find a middle aged local woman standing there
with a can, collecting money 'for the people in
Asia.' Whatever coins were in my pocket I coughed
up, partly out of appreciation of local initiative
as my wife had already made a donation through credit
card to one of the larger aid agencies. The collector,
facing down the wintry elements, didn't look to
see what was dropped into it, being content that
something rattled her can and that people were contributing.
In Belfast city centre Black Santa hit the streets
again, having earlier pulled off his winter wear
after braving the elements to raise money as part
of his annual charity appeal. Even though, as Celia
McGee reported, 'it's hard to get an Irishman to
admit there are more horror-soaked places than Belfast',
the city responded. At one point it was reported
that Black Santa was taking in £8,000 an hour.
Although the Guardian asked rhetorically,
'how can you send aid to a town which has ceased
to exist?', every penny of it is needed. While the
dead are beyond any help, the problem for the living
was underlined by the World Health Organization
which stated that 'between three and five million
people in the region are unable to access the basic
requirements they need to stay alive - clean water,
adequate shelter, food, sanitation and healthcare.'
In
the midst of this the Daily Telegraph issued
a damning indictment of the forces of capitalism:
The
indifference of capital to human suffering could
hardly be better illustrated than the reaction,
or lack of it, from the world's stock exchanges
to the Asian catastrophe. It was never likely to
have the same impact on Wall Street as the World
Trade Centre attack, but the sight of even the local
stock exchanges in the Far East shrugging it off
will have puzzled many … Few will have been
insured, and most of the destroyed property will
be easily replaced. It's unlikely that the total
financial cost will even make the top 10 of recent
catastrophes, since the largest structures in the
path of the tsunami are likely to have survived
without serious damage. It's an old truism that
catastrophes are good for insurance companies, and
this one could hardly be better timed, as so many
policies fall in at the year-end. Premiums will
rise, and more people will buy cover. Life is cruel
indeed.
In
tune with such a dubious economic philosophy the
United States - the leader of world capitalism -
initially offered what the New York Times
described as a miserly $15 million: 'half of what
Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural
festivities.' It has since been upped to $350 million.
If
the response of capital was poor, it was nevertheless
consistent with the lack of social investment in
the devastated region prior to the tsunami. The
Los Angeles Times reported that government
officials had long been advised to establish warning
systems. It all went unheeded. One specialist in
natural risk pointed out, 'it often doesn't take
much to escape a Tsunami; it's enough to run ten
minutes away from the beach.' But as Gérard
Dupuy in Libération contended, 'you
have to know the wave is coming.' He added:
The
big insurance companies, concerned about their stock
prices, have let it be known that they did not have
important commitments in the disaster-stricken countries.
And for that reason, these countries were not only
totally devoid of seismic sensors and dense communication
systems to sound the alarm, but also, naturally,
of the most elementary insurance system.
Tsunamis,
like earthquakes, may be natural events. But the
disasters that they leave in their wake are hardly
natural. Unless, that is, you believe that it is
natural for a small percentage in the world to accrue
the bulk of its resources for itself while the majority
can team up with the devil in the hindmost. If the
human species was not equipped to harness the forces
of nature, humanity would still be in the caves.
Proper social organisation may not stop natural
events but it can build adequate fortifications
to ensure that such events do not become disasters
on the scale witnessed in Asia. The biggest obstacle
to be overcome here is the tsunami of greed.
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All
censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging
current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress
is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and
executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently
the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships.
- George Bernard Shaw
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