The Tsunami Disaster

sadna #71

Sadna, you are most welcome. Actually that post had a slight inaccuracy – its not just reprocessed spent fuel but also an irradiated thorium blanket from the FBR that go to providing the core for the third stage thorium-fuelled reactors.

See the following article from Frontline Feb 14-17 2004 on the occasion of DAE’s 50th anniversary:
Thorium reactor on course

See also the following summary from BARC of India’s three-stage nuclear power generation strategy:
Strategy for nuclear energy

Ijaz Gul sahib has identified himself as a Pakistani civilian specialising in strategy, one of a rare breed. While no friend of India’s he was certainly quick on the ball re the PFBR. Give the devil his due.

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Amitav Ghosh (the name should be familiar to Chowk readers) is writing a series of three articles on the tsunami in ``The Hindu`` starting Tuesday (yesterday). Maybe it would also appear on the on-line version of The Hindu. Please check it out.

Aleph Null:

Why do you have such a strong negative sentiment against Pakistan? From what I have gathered, you are not Hindu or Punjabi, the two main criteria at least in the north for being strongly Anti Muslim or Anti Pakistani. Usually thes are refugees or related to them. Apparently you do not fit the profile at all.

Hence, what are your motivations? I had also read an article by TVR Shenoy where he strongly objected to some North Indian calling Pakistanis ``brothers``. I had no idea that this sort of sentiment even existed. Can you tell me why and when this cultural shift started? As far as I have read, there is no history of Hindu Muslim antagonism during partition or even since then except maybe in isolated incidents in Kerala.

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AlephNull #70
``The FBR is a vital stage in bootstrapping a Th-232/U-233 cycle – its spent fuel is the basis for initially fuelling the envisaged thorium-based reactors. Successful development of the thorium-fuelled reactors would give India a large degree of long-term energy independence.``

I didn`t know that. V. informative post, thanks.

AlephNull #70
PS: Pakis` intense irritation at India`s refusal of aid has been information-laden as well.

#65 by harimau, #66 by friend

Thanks Harimau,

Reading thru your post and the passion that you show for your fellow countrymen and people made me realize how sincere and alive you are in time of need for poor people in your province. I may have had some differences with you in the past but I can also see an honest man and I can certainly rise above the differences to appreciate your efforts and earnestness in helping poor folks. I was looking at some Satellite pictures of small villages on the beaches in Tamil Nado. Those were comparison pictures of before and after tsunami. One picture was that of Chennai beach and I realized the extent of damaged this disaster has caused for the poor folks.
The relief efforts often don’t end for a long time. Right now, chances of Cholera and other diseases associated with contaminated drinking water and food may actually increase the amount of effort it would take to bring a semblance of normal life for the affected people.
I know most of the Indians like you are proud people and would do their best to help the needy.
Unfortunately, we come from an area in the world where people would attempt to bring each other down rather than help each other in times of need.

Please continue the good work but be vigilant about your own health. As a former relief worker in a natural disaster in Pakistan, I know how relief workers suffer from exhaustion, mental and emotional fatigue. Good Luck!

On an aside, though I enjoy your accounts of the leader/actor/doctor but I find it hard to follow the whole tale. I am at this time researching on understanding communal relations in North India. Once I am done there, I will continue my endeavor in South India and then I will be able to follow your posts in true perspective.

What piqued me was the way A-hole used this tragedy to score a point over a sincere and concerned poster. A-hole’s bragging on the backs of thousands of dead people certainly was beyond the pale.

I wonder if everybody figured out the likely reason behind Ijaz Gul’s insistent curiosity about possible setbacks to the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) project at Kalpakkam. It is a vital project for India’s future security, and has implications for Pakistan’s future as well.

No, it is not a question of nuclear weapons but of energy security (and not just for `elites`, as Mr. Udayakumar would have you believe). India has the world’s largest reserves of thorium – which can be transmuted into U-233, a fissile uranium isotope usable in nuclear power generation. The Th-232/U-233 cycle is the preferred option for the maximum utilisation of India’s nuclear fuel resources (whereas the U-238/Pu-239 cycle is the preferred option in most of the rest of the world). The FBR is a vital stage in bootstrapping a Th-232/U-233 cycle – its spent fuel is the basis for initially fuelling the envisaged thorium-based reactors. Successful development of the thorium-fuelled reactors would give India a large degree of long-term energy independence. That would also be bad news for the Pakistani regime which is hoping to grow fat by parasitising India’s imports of hydrocarbons from Central Asia.

Even in the tsunami disaster the caste system prevailed and the untouchables & lower castes were made to suffer.

Muslims are considered the lowest of the low class by Hindus. They are classified as the Casteless ones; harijan or dalits.

Secularists and Atheists BEWARE! You are dalits as WELL.

Re HP #24

Through friends, we received a call from representatives of American Physicians of Indian Origin in North America (or some such organization). Half a dozen Indian doctors are prepared to fly out to India to spend a month working with the tsunami-affected population. They have collected about 400 container loads of clothing, food, medicines, even bottled water. They wanted to know where to go and wanted translators to assist them because they are all Gujaratis or Punjabis and don`t speak Tamil.

So we called a person (with leftist sympathies) active in social issues some 4 days ago, hardly 12 days after the tsunami. He said nothing was needed, just to send money if people wanted to help.

We then contacted a lawyer with good political connections. He repeated the advice that there was no need for people to show up trying to do something and that if at all they wanted to help, they should send money. He suggested that we go through the Indian Red Cross as otherwise the local political thugs (usually named Tamil Selvan or Ilam Vazhuthi or some such crapola) would step between the aid-givers and the aid material because they want to preserve their pretended role as the sole group caring for the downtrodden.

Dissatisfied, we contacted a doctor we know for his opinion. He said that most medicines won`t be cleared by Customs, local doctors may not be able to correlate Western brand names to products they have used for decades, most clothing would be inappropriate and so the best thing well-meaning people could do was to send money. Since he himself works at an understaffed hospital which devotes a considerable amount of its resources to free treatment for the poor, we figured he knew what he was talking about. He also suggested that most of the primary work such as gathering and cremating/burying the dead bodies has been undertaken and what was really needed was building materials so that the people could get some kind of shelter. He also suggested that Indians in the West should think of adopting several of the hundreds of children orphaned by the tsunami, even though the state government has announced special programs (cash awards put into savings accounts to be delivered upon reaching the age of 18, additional cash awards for orphaned girl children, government-run orphanages, etc., etc.) and take responsibility for their education and well-being. This sounded like sensible advice.

We then contacted Tata charities who have announced a special award of Rs. 200 million for the tsunami affected. In talking to the man in charge of the operation, we were given to understand that they are thinking of winding down their operations because the emergency has been taken care of and there was nothing much they could do.

So, what is really happening? The government distributed food packets and clothing in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami. A couple of days later, as the people demanded not food packets but food grains and cooking utensils so that they could cook their own food, the government distributed rice, stoves, kerosene, etc., to comply with the wishes of the population. NGOs and government relief programs have worked hard to clear the rubble left behind by the tsunami, repair roads and bridges and collect the dead bodies for disposal. Non-responsive government officials have been summarily transferred. The District Collector in the affected districts has been augmented by as many as 10 additional IAS officers (who have been cooling their heels waiting for a suitable position) to help manage the crisis. Even psychological counseling centers have been opened to counsel the tsunami victims.

What is needed is the long-term rehabilitation of the affected. Nobody can replace lost family members such as fathers, mothers and children. However, material aid in the form of boats and fishing nets to replace those that have been lost and construction material to build new housing is needed. The longer term effects on orphans need to be addressed as it is very easy for these children and the elderly to fall through the cracks and disappear from public view. The Ramakrishna Mission is adopting several hundred orphaned children and is planning to provide them with education. In coastal villages, schools have been demolished by waves and need to be re-built.

What you see on Chowk is the mindless regurgitation of propaganda by Sun-TV and Jaya-TV. Sun-TV owned by the family of Elder Son of Mother Tamil-Doctor Artist Leader the Fund of Compassion showed the same footage of a man complaining one hour after the tsunami that no aid has been given throughout the day, giving rise to the impression that the government was apathetic. The news anchors deliberately posed the questions to their correspondents in such a manner that the local correspondents picked up the cue and parroted the party line that the state government was doing nothing. All relief efforts, according to Sun-TV, is due to the intervention of Fund of Compassion (Dayanidhi) Maran, the original Fund of Compassion`s grand-nephew who is using his influence as a Cabinet Minister to obtain aid from the Central government.

Not to be outdone, the ADMK pushed a woman to the front when Sonia Gandhi (who the fcuk is she anyway?) toured the affected slums in Chennai. The woman volunteered for the TV cameras that the state has been doing a wonderful job. When Sun-TV figured out what was happening, they roughly pushed her away to see if they could find someone to complain. Of course, even the award of Rs. 100,000 to each affected family isn`t enough if someone merely tells you they would have done better.

ND-TV seemed to do a more balanced coverage of the situation; however the Masanamuthus (and Amrit Rajans) watch Sun-TV for its entertainment (meaning, B-grade movies scripted by Doctor Artist Leader the Fund of Compassion) and cannot distinguish between propaganda and news.

Despite the great tragedy of the tsunami, the local Kennel Club held a three-day Dog Show where dogs of imported breeds competed for prizes and native Indian breeds such as the Kanni, Rajapalayam, Mudhol, etc., were featured. Fund of Compassion (Dayanidhi) Maran, in his capacity as Minister for IT and Communications released a set of 4 stamps featuring 4 Indian breeds (some months earlier, he had released a stamp featuring his dad Murasoli ``Drumbeat`` Maran so one could say that he continues the tradition of releasing stamps featuring dogs!). In his speech, the Fund of Compassion decried the fact that the average Indian`s desire for Westernization has gone so low as to include even dogs and hoped that Indians would start keeping Indian breeds of dogs as pets. I was left wondering whether this speech had any tangential reference to a famous North Indian political family that had imported an Italian b!tch to improve its own bloodlines. I was also wondering if that Italian b!tch could be declared to be truly Indian by Doctor Artist Leader the Fund of Compassion and others who are able to grant caste certificates, why my Golden Retriever which was born in Chennai and probably has a bloodline that has only India-born dogs as ancestors for the last six generations should still be considered a foreign dog, particularly when none of them ever possessed a foreign passport.

HP #64
Not all Indians are equal. Those two indians are incapable of handling Tsunami and most of us are.

HP #64
Not all Indians are equal. Those two indians are incapable of handling Tsunami and most of us are.

#53 by A-hole

“What makes you think Indians cannot do much themselves?”

At least two Indians who wrote article on chowk implied that Indians are incapable of handling it! A-hole!
From another article on chowk

Aftermath
Amrita Rajan

“However, I was then stunned to find a number of people who were a little hesitant to do anything.

“For God’s sake why?” I asked Daddy after one such episode.

“You don’t understand the Indian mentality,” he informed me, as if I weren’t Indian myself. “People will always wonder if their money is going to the victims or being swallowed by someone else.”

“There is none of that indifference that I see in so many Indians,” she wrote. “None of that ‘it’s-not-my-problem’ mentality.

From the Article above.

“This tsunami attack is yet another proof of our pathetic national record of emergency unpreparedness. Even after five days of the tsunami assault, there have been bloated human bodies and animal caracasses rotting on the open beaches and spreading diseases.”

“Most victims who are languishing in the temporary shelters with intimate losses and incredible traumas have been complaining about the lackadaisical relief work of the government authorities.”