Along the coastal road from Colombo to Hambantota port until two weeks after the tsunami of 26 December 2004 in a few minutes you took away more than 40,000 lives in Sri Lanka alone, more than the rubble has not been seen much. Boats, smashed against the remnants of some houses, and tiles, potsherds, rags, pieces of wood, motors, water tanks.
I had arrived on the island on the morning after the tragedy, accompanied a group of Italian tourists on a journey of Responsible Tourism. These trips are always a matter of solidarity, but we did not expect some amount that would be needed this time!
Now the group had returned to the vacation ended and I had a little ' speditimi of money from friends from home who wanted to lend a hand to local families affected and they had entrusted to me since I was there and I know the country for several previous trips.
"Do not you see people " he kept repeating his friend Tamil humanitarian organization in Kandy, HDO (Human Development Organization) with which we were making a long journey by bus to Tangalle on the south coast.
few people in fact, only someone who rummage through the pieces of walls trying to find pieces of the house.
Debris, for five continuous hours, the images I have in the eyes of the bus trip along the coast. Piles of rubble and broken bricks and beams and pieces of furniture and remnants of broken tiles and rags and scraps of twisted bicycles and motorcycles and bits of boats arriving from across the street. And an old woman sitting outside a makeshift tent, staring into space images of memories that remain. And people trying, in the midst of all this, to find something that was still usable. In time, before the arrival of the caterpillar to open a new space for an uncertain future.
"They are in the fields " he said, " are afraid to return."
All schools on the coast and many Buddhist temples were used as fields for refugees. Speaking with people who lived there is still perceived in the eye wall of water that swept away all that 'he found, people who drowned, their parents, their children, the elderly and children in particular, slower to seek refuge on top of the palm trees or on rooftops. Life rimastagli was now waiting for the daily flag of a truck with some stranger who came in to bring food rations, the night, lying on the bare earth, often insomnia, memories, nightmares and screams of fear from the tents nearby.
" a little while, then begin the monsoon that will flood everything on time once a day. Life in the camps is difficult because many people with the death of the family-based structure of society has collapsed: in these fields live close to people before the tsunami were of different social conditions, and here the castes have their own importance: they were not all poor, not least equally, and for young unmarried women and widows is often desirable to seek refuge with relatives rather than live in the area so even if they lose the right to food rations.
Then there are many who have lost their homes but have lost all the tools, especially the boats, and are not considered refugees, but did not earn the same as that living. "
"See, they are the only ones here who are organized, and they show up." Nada, the Tamil friend, I pointed to a tent which had been set up under a table, a group of women wrapped in saris for cheap, some with the baby in her arms, and some man with a sarong tied on his stomach lined up to a series of pots which was distributed rice and curry and side waving the blue flags with white writing of the JVP.
Every now and then crossed the road trucks loads of activists with the same flag. The Janata Vimukti Peramuna (People's Liberation Front) and 'the party Communist-nationalist who triggered the late eighties, especially in the south of the country, an insurgency that has made thousands of victims by the revolutionary government, which responded with a bloody repression. He subsequently became a party institution is the third largest in the country, deeply rooted in popular in the southern provinces. It 's still a party rather than combative, a counterweight to the liberal trends and highly favorable to foreign investment than the other two major parties, the PA and in this sense, especially the UNP (in Sri Lanka there are some export processing zones with special status among those with the worst working conditions in Asia and is one of the few countries in the where foreigners can buy land and buildings have 100% ownership). He was also, along with the conservative-fundamentalist party of the Buddhist clergy, one of the main obstacles to a peaceful solution to the conflict with the Tamil separatist forces in the north-east.
The civil war between the national army and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam, known as the "Tamil Tigers") ended in 2009 with the defeat of the separatists had been ongoing since 1983 and has caused over 70,000 deaths. Over the past three years before the tsunami was to observe a ceasefire achieved through the mediation of Norway and the policy dialogue Ranil Wikremesinghe, prime minister at the head of the previous government led by the UNP (United National Party). Although the state of truce had been, during this period, substantially complied with, the negotiations to reach a permanent peace that could give hope to this poor country where war has consumed a significant percentage of GDP for decades, soon stranded, and if it were not for the tsunami, perhaps in the north have begun to fight much earlier than they eventually did. Nada, for his work with the NGOs, often went in the Tamil areas of Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Batticaloa and told me that the tension was always higher in recent times before the disaster on both sides beyond the line dividing the respective areas of control of the army and the Tigers. " "The situation post tsunami is recovering the same trend: the aid coming from the government in Tamil-majority areas are minimal compared to those of the Sinhalese and there have been cases of seizure of trucks carrying food to the Tamil refugees."
E 'is also significant that during their visits to Sri Lanka in the days following the tsunami or Kofi Annan or Colin Powell or Bill Clinton or Bush have been able to visit the north-east.
The [then] President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has set up a central office under his direct control that oversees all the aid and that, as he can, trying to manage also directly funds the NGO: the attitude is basically "give us the money to use them we will". And it is perhaps a result of disagreements that I've even read the newspapers more than 100 containers of aid blocked in the port of Colombo that NGOs target could not withdraw because of excessive customs duties also maintained on donations.
"But the Tigers are not to be less" Nada continued: "They made their central aid to victims, the TRO (Tamil Rescue Organization) and pretend that everything must pass in their areas under their administration. The management of money and goods are distributed is a great source of power and a powerful means of propaganda, the decisive period that will follow. If you notice, all those who bring aid have their flags prominently.
Nada, himself a Tamil, belongs to another school, his NGO, HDO, is convinced a group of peace activists, inspired by Gandhi, and engaged in interethnic dialogue, a rarity in this context. The mission for which I was taking him to the Tangalle shows clearly: it was a visit to arrange a shipment of aid from an organization in a totally Sri Lankan Tamil. , "We'll take our flags" I said with a grin "We want them to see who we are."
"Conversely the JVP in the south, the LTTE is the only truly local force organized in the north (though beset by a series of murderous feuds interaction with other Tamil factions splinter)" Nada yet explained to me as we descended from 'crowded bus and crossed the square of the bus station dodging stray cows, beggars and hawkers in arm with boxes of peanuts, fried and served hot chick cones. "They are organizations with a paramilitary structure, capillary and disciplined, while the two major parties institutional (PA and UNP) are more media, more image, less motivated frameworks, and lack of organization: people do not see them equally in the distribution of primary goods in the fields and roads. Local politicians seem to be especially attentive to the picture: there are those who has been photographed while shoveling rubble or delivered rations in many affected villages have been made are the foundation stone laying ceremony for new homes, with services in newspapers and TV but then the work stopped there and it even happened that checks for assistance by the government are then distributed to refugees in many cases the results discovered. "
"and this' his weight. Have you seen in the district of Gampaha, Negombo near? It is traditionally an area of \u200b\u200bthe JVP, but these days there are local elections and won them. These things have their importance if there are conflicting developments after the turn which is taking the policy of the here after tsunami. It 'a historic step, which is crucial for us: an unimaginable catastrophe that broke the legs of a poor country already, yet now a flow of money and resources than the annual GDP and all at a crucial time for a conflict that has lasted more than two decades! "
After giving a hand to Nada and his colleagues in the distribution of aid had been Tangalle to see what could I do with this money. Rather than being primary
aid such as food and water - to take care of the big organizations anyway - I wanted to help someone back to work. And since the people affected in the area, like the rest of the coast, were mainly fishermen, I thought I'd see if we could provide some fishing equipment.
After some research on the internet I came into contact with NAFSA (www.nafso.lk), a local union of fishermen on a small scale related to the global network of farmers and fishermen Via Campesina. They showed me their written reference to Tangalle, mr. Vipulasena, a fisherman and he himself a victim of the tsunami, in fact I said they stayed in one of the refugee camps and therefore could not give me a phone or a contact to find it. "But you know Tangalle is not great, and people you know."
I remember the time when the road in front of the port of Tangalle I asked a man wearing only a dirty shirt and a sarong, sitting under one of the buildings destroyed, if he knew some of NAFSA Vipulasena and he responded that it was him. And when, in front of my reaction a bit 'cautiously suspicious (you knew I was there to bring help and maybe money) extracted from a pile of rubble, a ripped banner half was written in Sinhalese characters welcome you to the "conference 2004 for the rights and welfare of the families of fishermen "... or something like that.
remember the other fishermen who immediately approached and their stories: boats entering the water pressures inside the houses, co-workers dead, afraid to return to sea after day, people who did not want to buy fish for the fear that it was contaminated by dead bodies and those who took advantage of a price to pay for it by hunger. And those who were on the larger boats that are out several days and did not realize anything because of the high seas the wave had not destructive power and when they returned they found the city destroyed and the dead in the streets.
Vipulasena explained to me the difference between the different boats and different systems of fishing boats are one, two and many people and one day or several days of fishing and in this case take the ice in the hull to conserve the fish. The first are those at the family level, the fishermen who work for themselves, many of whom adhere to NAFSA, the other property owners, fishermen and people who work there are paid by the day.
He showed me the damage to the boats and I understood immediately that we wanted very different resources than I had available to think to mend or re-purchase new ones. So we opted to buy fishing nets for those whose catamaran (traditional boat with rocker) could still going to sea. But there was no way to buy networks because even retailers and factories of these items had been overwhelmed by the disaster. I had to go further north, in Negombo, and I should be able to meet the national secretary of the union has its headquarters there.
The Secretary, Herman Kumara, we went to a wholesaler of fishing equipment. I bought the networks necessary for the work of 100 families, 50 networks, each working with two fishermen and then the rest of the family selling the fish, the dry, repair the nets, etc ... So I spent € 2000 I had available, then they would deliver a list of all recipients agreed with Vipulasena.
Then mr. Kumara invited me home. Negombo lives outside in an area planted with coconut palms and banana trees, is a Christian, but Buddhist married to a wife, as pointed out to me and rested her home and went to the gift to the altar with a statue of Christ and a Buddha . An interfaith marriage relatively common in the area of \u200b\u200bNegombo that has a significant presence of Christians. Partnerships between Buddhists and Hindus are much more rare because of the twenty-year ethnic conflict between Sinhalese (Buddhist) and Tamil (Hindu).
In the house there was a lot of children and relatives and neighbors, the family there is something bigger than here.
While we were eating the ubiquitous rice and curry, Herman Kumara gave me a broader view of what was actually happening. In essence, according to him, what happened to Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami is that the political power and business of the country's top law sought to use funds earmarked for reconstruction for a series of "great works" such as new roads, railways and new ports through which lead to a modernization of the country that made him attractive to both foreign and local investment. This will be called to create the necessary infrastructure development - and normally occurred elsewhere - would go largely to the benefit of investors and would have eradicated a large proportion of the population from their traditional social and economic status.
I took a very clear example of the process that was configured with the situation of fishermen: the government put a ban "for reasons of security" along the coast to build or rebuild houses within 100 meters from the beach which is where the majority fishermen lived, but permission is still only for the big hotels. The intent seemed to deliver the beautiful beaches of the island for the exclusive use of the entrepreneurs of luxury tourism, which is largely foreign-owned (in Sri Lanka foreigners can buy land and buildings while maintaining its 100% ownership - something almost unique in this part of the world - and big investments are strong tax exemptions and the possibility of re-export the profits). Until then, however, tourism was largely at the level of entrepreneurship family of small pensions and earnings which were distributed among a large number of people involved in various capacities in related services to visitors. Parallel to this
donations of boats and fishing equipment that arrived as tsunami aid from the European Union and FAO (the things that we have not used any more for the increasing scarcity of fish) would have made, together with the construction of ports modern economics of the fishing island increasingly dependent on imports for with spare parts and accessories. And it would put the fish available in the networks of these boats imported larger and more efficient and require a larger crew and specialized structure which is alien to the social and economic and entrepreneurial capabilities of traditional Sri Lankan fishing families whose members would soon found to choose between paid work and precarious future of the vessels and a new citizens unemployed in the slums of Colombo.
And the most ironic - I remarked Herman - is that all this would happen "thanks" to the funds that were not donated to "modernize" the country, but to restore the lives of disaster victims (most of these very small-scale fishermen) in the same way it was before: for the deaths of tens of thousands of these people who were given the money, not to transform the economic profile of the country!
On the other hand it was clear what the stakes were high and as we are already taking sufficient measures to ensure the success of the operation if, as reported in the Sunday Leader on February 20, in all the affected areas 'authority over the camps had been placed in the hands of the military and placed under special emergency legislation. This allowed to arrest anyone at the discretion of law enforcement "Disturb the functioning of essential services going so against the interest of national security." Under this Act (No.12 of 4 January 2004 - nine days after the tragedy - but only made public on 25) the president could declare an "essential service" any service, and acts which constitute crimes against those services included "the strike, the 'incitement to strike, the distribution of posters and leaflets and even the spread of false information likely to cause public alarm or disorder. " When I greeted
Herman Kumara wished him good luck for the heart because the next day we were all over the island a series of protests organized by their unions to oppose this policy and require that resources were used to help the victims in what they really need to return to their normal life. "
five years have passed since then and I returned to Sri Lanka only once briefly in 2007. Along the coast, much had been rebuilt, although many families were still living in refugee camps. Small entrepreneurs in the tourism of the coast have built massive borrowing as much as possible, without taking into account the so-called "buffer zone" in which he was forbidden to build, so that the government had to reduce it up to 20-30 meters or implicitly accept abolition of done. The fishermen of the Nafs
continued to carry out their battles, reaching even to get a major success recently with the ban on more invasive techniques of fishing (http://www.asianews.it/index.php?1 = en & art = 15870).
To me, the experience of that period, he remained skeptical as to the major operations of "humanitarian aid" and the cooperation organizations which are often one of several areas of international business. I think today that is worth making contributions (I mean by people rather than governments - which necessarily, in emergency situations, should move on other proportions) only projects small scale, possibly run by people of which there is a direct and that the scope of an audit on what is actually done. Upstream projects that have an overall view and critique of what it means to "help" and "development" and not merely focus on generic aspects "humane" without considering the effect, the integrability and the sustainability of these in the specific context of single country.
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