The Tsunami Disaster

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re: #46 by ijaz_gul
Read fareed Zakaria`s article in Newsweek (which i have posted in my last post) to know how good the response was from an average Indian and NGOs following Tsunami.
You may also get a kick out of this one : Url: http://www.outlookindia.com/glitterati.asp
(6-inch Relief
Deepal Shaw, the chick from Kabhi Aar, Kabhi Paar, is more than glad about losing her tartan skirt for the tsunami victims—her 6-inch (nearly) contribution. The skirt will go under the hammer and the proceeds sent towards relief)
Sridhar

re:#60 by M.B.Z.Isphahani
Mr Isphahani,
You seem to have caught on to the report in some sections of the Egyptian press accusing India, US, Israel of causing floods by underground nuclear tests!
This would be laughable if the situation were not so tragic.
Muslim world is to be blamed from not taking a leaddership role in helping their own cobrethren in Indonesia and Maldives (leave aside the non-muslims of Thailand, India, Srilanka) in time. Saudi Arabia and other oil rich nations waste money on indoctrination, spreading the militant version of Islam around the world but they seem to have no time for the people affected by disaster. What does this tell u about the nature of these people?
People who have nothing better to do go about formulating theories, plots, counterplots. No scientist will buy the theory that Tsunami was caused by a nuclear explosion.
Sridhar

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Aleph and Harimau,

If all that you wrote is indeed correct, then India is in a process of a remakable turnround mainly becuase of its vibrant civil society. I wish many more countries in the region could replicate this.

I am no India pusher but just wondered, what was keeping away Indian relief efforts in some of the islands, when concurrently, India was busy in the resue and rehabilitation effrts in Undonesia and Sri Lanka.

The Muslim World at large has shown no emphaty towards this tragedy and the petro rich sheikdoms have extended peanuts towards the relief effort. Here in Pakistan, the civil society mainly through the private TV Channels,relief organisations like EDHI, Showbiz and banks have begun a vibrant campaign to collect funds.

Perhaps the best that has emerged from this tragedy is the massive relief by the West particularly in Indonesia, dispelling the impression that the West is anti Muslim. As seen in Galle and Tamil Nadu, it has also brought communities closer.

Our prayers are with the afflicted and we feel for them.

Cheerios

Iraq Vs Tsunami

MIKE WHITNEY

The tsunami has turned into a 24 hour-a-day media frenzy of carnage and ruin, exploring every facet of human misery in agonizing detail. Where was this ``free press`` in Iraq when the death toll was skyrocketing towards 100,000?

The American media has descended on the Asian tsunami with all the fervor of feral animals in a meat locker. The newspapers and TV’s are plastered with bodies drifting out to sea, battered carcasses strewn along the beach and bloated babies lying in rows. Every aspect of the suffering is being scrutinized with microscopic intensity by the predatory lens of the media.

This is where the western press really excels: in the celebratory atmosphere of human catastrophe. Their penchant for misery is only surpassed by their appetite for profits.

Where was this ``free press`` in Iraq when the death toll was skyrocketing towards 100,000? So far, we’ve seen nothing of the devastation in Falluja where more than 6,000 were killed and where corpses were lined along the city’s streets for weeks on end. Is death less photogenic in Iraq?

Or, are there political motives behind the coverage?

Wasn’t Ted Koppel commenting just days ago, that the media was restricting its coverage of Iraq to show sensitivity for the squeamishness of its audience? He reiterated the mantra that filming dead Iraqis was ``in bad taste`` and that his American audience would be repelled by such images? How many times have we heard the same rubbish from Brokaw, Jennings and the rest of their ilk?

Well, it looks like Koppel and the others have quickly switched directions. The tsunami has turned into a 24 hour-a-day media frenzy of carnage and ruin, exploring every facet of human misery in agonizing detail.

The festival of bloodshed is chugging ahead at full-throttle and it’s bumping up ratings in the process.When it comes to Iraq, however, the whole paradigm shifts to the right.

The dead and maimed are faithfully hidden from view. No station would dare show a dead Marine or even an Iraqi national mutilated by an errant American bomb.

That might undermine the patriotic objectives of our mission: to democratize the natives and enter them into the global economic system.

Besides, if Iraq was covered like the tsunami, public support would erode extremely quickly, and Americans would have to buy their oil rather than extracting it at gunpoint.

What good would that do?

Looks like the media’s got it right: carnage IS different in Iraq than Thailand, Indonesia or India.

The Iraqi butchery is part of a much grander scheme: a plan for conquest, subjugation and the theft of vital resources, the foundation blocks for maintaining white privilege into the next century.

The Iraq conflict is an illustration of how the media is governed by the political agenda of ownership. The media cherry-picks the news according to the requirements of the investor class, dumping footage (like dead American soldiers) that doesn’t support their policies.

That way, information can be fit into the appropriate doctrinal package, one that serves corporate (political and business) interests. It’s a matter of selectively excluding anything that compromises the broader, imperial objectives. Alternatively, the coverage of the Asian tsunami allows the media to whet the public’s appetite for tragedy and feed the macabre preoccupation with misfortune.

Both tendencies are an affront to honest journalism and to any reasonable commitment to an informed citizenry.

The uneven coverage (of Iraq and the tsunami) highlights an industry in meltdown.

Today’s privately owned media may bury one story, and yet, manipulate another to boost ratings.They are just as likely to exploit the suffering of Asians, while ignoring the pain of Iraqis.

Neither brings us closer to the truth.

It’s simply impossible to derive a coherent worldview from the purveyors of soap suds and dog food. They’re more devoted to creating a compatible atmosphere for consumerism than conveying an objective account of events.

We need a media that is dedicated to straightforward standards of impartiality and excellence, not one that’s rooted in commercialism, exploitation and hyperbole.``

---

BTW -- 10 to 20 thousand Western tourists died -- did anybody see their bodies floating -- did anyone watch their children being carried by their fathers and mothers in rigor mortis on CNN CNBC and FOX -- showing their bodies will be undignified and crude journalism for Western sensivities -- but not that of the the South Asian`s...the world is used to their dying like flies...anyway

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Ref ijaz_gul #46

[This event perhaps gives the power hungry gurus of the Indian establishment a reason to show off thheir much coveted Great Power status. They continue to refuse International aid and cannot do much themselves.]

Actually, the Indian Navy is assisting both Sri Lanka and Maldives (both in the Indian Ocean, our own backyard) and has dispatched a contingent even to Indonesia. India has offered $25 million to Sri Lanka in aid. We can afford to do it because our forex reserves grow by $130 million a month because of the IT/call center/BPO boom and no thanks to the incompetent Commies in the government.

Did you read about the French foreign minister`s support of India`s stand in declining foreign aid for India itself? While that decision was derided in the French newspapers, the foreign minister pointed out that India is no longer dependent on foreign aid for recovery from disasters.

Also, people send stuff that is quite useless to those affected. Blankets are of no use in the hot tropical weather of South India.

By the way, it seems Gujarat`s cities are suddenly free of all beggars. They all have taken a train to coastal Tamil Nadu because of the freebies offered. I got to check out the scene to see if the people claiming to be affected can actually speak Tamil!

re:#38 by HP
While u saw it fit to post that article on dalits (which BTW, all of us had seen and read), u seem to have missed the one written by your own coreligionist Fareed Zakaria in the Newsweek.
Url: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6804125/site/newsweek/

(Amid Disaster, New Confidence
In Chennai, a private street-cleaning movement now has 17,000 chapters
By Fareed Zakaria
Newsweek
Updated: 11:56 a.m. ET Jan. 9, 2005

Jan. 17 issue - To understand how much and how fast India is changing, look at its response to the tsunami. I don`t mean the government`s reaction but that of individual Indians. In the two weeks after the tidal wave hit, the Prime Minister`s Relief Fund, the main agency to which people make donations, has collected about $80 million. After the Gujarat earthquake of April 2001, it took almost one year to collect the same amount of money. And remember that the 2001 earthquake was massive (7.9 on the Richter scale), killed more Indians (30,000) than the tsunami appears to have, and also got intense media attention (Bill Clinton headed the fund-raising efforts). What has changed in these four years is the most important new reality about India: the growing wealth, strength and confidence of Indian society.

Until a few years ago, Indian newspapers were filled with the affairs of the state. Usually written in a cryptic jargon filled with abbreviations (PM TO PROPOSE UGC EXPANSION AT AICC MEETING), they reported on the workings of the government, major political parties and bureaucratic bodies. Pick up an Indian newspaper today and it is overflowing with stories about businessmen, technological fads, fashion designers, new shopping malls and, of course, Bollywood, which now makes more movies every year than Hollywood. The Times of India, once the country`s most venerated newspaper, now has the look and feel of a colorful tabloid.

India`s biggest story for the past month, aside from the tsunami, has been the rift between Mukesh Ambani and his younger brother, who run India`s largest company, Reliance Industries. Twenty years ago, this tale would have been relegated to the (thin) business section of a paper; today it`s front-page news. It makes sense—after all, Reliance has 3 million shareholders.

In New Delhi, where I was last week, people ponder prospects for further economic reforms. Some think they are going too slow; others are heartened that at least they are moving forward. This discussion has been going on for two decades. But the real story might be that 20 years of modest but persistent reforms in India have had huge effects. Over the past 15 years, India has been the second fastest-growing large economy in the world (after China), with an average growth rate of 6 percent. Per capita income in the country has almost doubled (from an admittedly tiny base), and more than 100 million Indians have moved out of poverty. The animal spirits of Indian capitalism, long suppressed, have been unleashed.

Gurcharan Das, the former CEO of Procter & Gamble in India, and one of the first chroniclers of these shifts in attitude, told me a story of a poor young teenager he encountered. The boy told Das that in order to succeed, he had three goals. He wanted to learn to use Windows, to write an invoice and to learn 400 words of English. ``Why 400 words?`` asked Das. The boy explained that that`s what it took to pass the Test of English as a Foreign Language, the base requirement for admission to an American university. ``Now, this guy probably won`t get into an American college, but this is the way people are thinking all over India,`` Das said.

Of course, all the legendary problems of Indian government remain: subsidies, regulation, red tape, bureaucracy and inefficiency are all still large obstacles to growth. And on many of the key problems—subsidies of electricity, agriculture, privatization, labor laws—a coalition government, with communist support, is not likely to be able to effect dramatic change. But even here, things look better than they ever have. The new government, with all its constraints, is in fact strongly reformist. It might go slow, but it will go steadily forward.

FAREED ZAKARIA

Write the author at comments@fareedzakaria.com.)
Dalit problem will not go away soon but will fade away gradually as Dalits themselves get empowered, politically and economically. All this is already happening, albeit slowly.
Until then, Pakis have this one stick to beat India with!!. What does this tell u about the Paki mentality. SH!T is the word that comes to mind.
Sridhar

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ijaz_gul #46 writes:

{{Regretably, I had posted this comment on an earlier article and got an acidic comment.}}

The tart comment you got from avenger was on the money.

{{What has happened to the Indian Power Reactor in Chennai, the fast breeder reactor and military facilities in Nicobar etc.}}

As far as the IGCAR MAPS and PFBR facilities (at Kalpakkam) are concerned, here are a couple of relevant reports from The Hindu.
Kalpakkam nuclear reactors are completely safe: Kakodkar
Kakodkar to give ‘emotional support’

Those of Pakistani persuasion should note that The Hindu is India’s leading pinko peacenik daily. That said, their coverage of technical issues related to India’s nuclear power, nuclear weapons and space programs, and also of key defence projects such as the LCA, has generally been exemplary, in striking contrast to the incompetent coverage in most of the Indian press. I would especially recommend the Hindu -affiliated fortnightly Frontline for good coverage of technical issues. I don’t care for their politics though.

Also, an interview, in Rediff, with the former director of safety at IGCAR:
No tsunami effect on nuclear plant

As far as military facilties in A & N are concerned, the air base on Car Nicobar was badly damaged; however, the runway will apparently be back in operation in 2 weeks:
Plan to station Sukhoi-30 fighters in the Andamans put on hold

See also this article from Outlook India:
Bay of Blight

{{This event perhaps gives the power hungry gurus of the Indian establishment a reason to show off thheir much coveted Great Power status. They continue to refuse International aid and cannot do much themselves.}}

What makes you think Indians cannot do much themselves?

{{This is not to invoke a south asian contest.}}

A contest implies at least two contestants, roughly evenly matched. If India is one, who would the others be? For the life of me I can’t come up with any plausible candidates.

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Re sridhar #26, harimau #15 and my #22

It turns out I was wrong in my previous post when I opined that detecting tsunamis in open ocean (basically, measuring height and distance between crests of a very long wave of small height) via satellite, would be extremely difficult. See the following from New Scientist:

Radar satellites capture tsunami wave height

I already knew that radar satellites had been used for a problem at the opposite extreme of the spectrum: verifying the reported existence in open ocean of ‘rogue’ or ‘killer’ waves with heights of up to 30 meters (and short wavelengths). From the clues in the article linked above, I was able to convince myself that the tsunami detection problem is quite doable provided one can make very accurate distance measurements to the ocean surface along linear tracks (one would need to make those measurements along two sets of tracks, roughly at right angles to one another).

Ref ijaz_gul #46

[What has happened to the Indian Power Reactor in Chennai, the fast breeder reactor...]

I am giving away no great secret when I tell you that the atomic power plant is in Kalpakkam, sone 50 miles south of Chennai. The newspapers report that the power plant was shut down as a precationary measure and was restarted a couple of days later. The sea wall in front of the power plant was demolished by the waves but no other damage was caused by the tsunami. Some three scientists at the establishment were washed away by the waves and died.

There was no hiccup to the power supply in Chennai. The refrigerators in the house kept humming, we watched TV, listened to the radio and used our electric lights. It is still not hot enough to turn on the airconditioning otherwise I would have given you a report on that too. The movie houses in the city are playing to full or empty houses as the case maybe and teenagers and college kids are hanging around at the malls, at Coffee Day, Pizza Hut, etc., as teenagers are wont to do. The volume was cranked up really high at the local Pizza Corner on New Year`s Eve for the year-end party. So much for the tsunami`s impact on either the electrical system or the middle- and upper-class folks. Those who refused to adjust to life in the 20th century and continued to live in shanties on the beach lost their families but are being fed and clothed, either by NGOs, the local RSS, the local jamaats and -- surprise -- even the government.

[,,, and military facilities in Nicobar etc. Is it because India does not want the world to know that it refuses international assistance, or does it run counter to her great power status.]

Hello, we are not talking Diego Garcia here or having 500 intercontinental bombers based there, are we? We are talking about an Air Force base and a naval base. Yeah, they got smashed up pretty bad but planes, both commercial as well as air force transports, land there regularly after Day One. Or Day Zero. Whichever way you want to count.

#44


what sadna(#43) said is very true. while trivandrum dist was not hit up north kollam and even allapuzha got hit.

nytimes had a simualtion of the psunami which shows how the psunami swung around lanka and hit the west coast. It took another half hour after nagapattinam was hit, for colachel in teh west coast to have the disastrous experience.

my friend tells me that the response from the people particularly the young of india was overwhelming. They were getting 200 trucks a day to nagercoil for relief. According to my friend now the relief has already shifted to second phase. i.e everything is done to get the fishermen back to action. help is also needed to rebuild the livelihood of the people who depend on the fishermen and truck the fish to markets in cochin and kollam. These people apparently are not yet in the radar screen of many relief eforts.