The Tsunami Disaster

Aleph -- it is not that God has no conscience -- he does not -- it is rather we humans who have put an unrealistic, higly inflated -- immensely exaggerated -- premium on our -- worthless worth......

between the humans and the bacteria -- God definitely LOVES the decomposer bacteria MORE -- He has MADE zillion more of them -- than the decomposing humans......

I am watching Question Time India on BBC, moderated by Sagarika Ghose. There appears a consensus amonst the audience that the Government of India has not done enough in the islands and allowed people to suffer and die, while it remains incapable of accessing some of the islands itself. What is this?
Cheerios

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An ant caught in a monsoon eddy could wonder too, about God. To us, however, the ant`s predicament is not a data point worth bringing God in for. Because we know exactly why the ant is in the predicament it is in - because monsoons are part of the way nature works, and the ant didn`t know how to get out of the way(we humans do, so we don`t generally get swept away in monsoon eddies).

Continental plates shift, Himalayas are born, earthquakes happen, sometimes setting off tsunamis, that is the way Earth is, we just didn`t know how to get out of the way. Animals and Bronze Age tribal communities did.

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nasah #82, #85, kaalchakra #83

Those who believe in a ‘just’ and caring omniscient omnipotent divinity have always been hard-pressed to explain why calamities are visited on innocents. Leibniz came up with a vindication of divine justice that asserts that of all possible worlds consistent with human free will ours is the best. This explanation was satirised by Voltaire in ‘Candide’, where the calamitous events include the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and a subsequent series of tsunamis that wiped out a third of that city’s population. So you folks are hardly the first to think along those lines.

re: M.B.Z.Isphahani # 88

Sure, dear friend.

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re: 86

That was silly of me. I shouldn`t waste my emotions.

this tsunami is one more PROOF that GOD as we know -- DOES NOT EXIST.....

re: M.B.Z.Isphahani # 84

We couldn`t care less about your apologies. You are irrelevant, or will become irrelevant.

Entertain yourself:

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_13-1-2005_pg3_2

re: nasah # 82

``folks the latest tsunami rumor is that God also died in that mother of all catastrophes.....``

If God is just He should have committed suicide.

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folks the latest tsunami rumor is that God also died in that mother of all catastrophes.....

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stuka #76

You’ve asked a question that is (1) unrelated to the topic of this board and (2) probes my personal background. I don’t wish to waste bandwidth – too much of that already on Veeresh’s board – and don’t want to dwell on personal stuff on FP; so I’ll keep it short. In brief – why shouldn’t an Indian from anywhere in the country be interested in Indian security issues? And if so, would you expect him to have friendly feelings towards the Pakistani state? I’ve been as negative towards the (more coldly pragmatic and rational) PRC, towards elements of the US establishment inimical to India (such as hypocrite non-proliferation ayatollahs), and to sermonising meddling Euros. Much of my dislike for the Pakistani state can be explained without reference to my specific personal background. The portion that might have a personal tinge is not based on ancient historical baggage – there is none - but on my total rejection of religiously based identity. My personal ‘cultural shift’ began in the US but was massively accelerated post 1998-99. Hope that’s an adequate explanation; otherwise please follow up on UP.

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.”

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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.

Cheerios gul saheb#46 & others

So now we have a conspiracy theory! And there is no answer to conspiracy theories. Elivs is driving taxi in LA, Lyndon Jhonson conspired to kill JFK, and Jinnah was murdered. There are lot of tabliods in India, US, UK and I believe in Pakistan too that will be happy to provide you one about Tsunami too.

India has to start taking care of itself. Would you sceptics allow, atleast once, for it to try herself? Let this be a test for India`s ability to help itself. If it succeeds you have one less sick man in world. If it fails, fine, you can donate all your money. India would be happy to accept that.

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

---

#1 Tsunami on December 30, 2004
This is not to invoke a south asian contest.

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

Just an inquiry
Cheerios

---

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. Somehow, I feel it has to do a lot with th military secrets of Nicobar, Andeman islands, some of which have still not been accessed. The world is quiet on this neglect and it is upto the I Indian Intellects to come out with their honest opinion.

A good article.
Cheerios

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There is video currently showing on CNN which was shot from the Vivekananda Memorial Rock in Kanyakumari. My cousin and his family would have been there, if a family lunch invitation had not kept them home :(.

As nanjil #24 said, the tsunami on western coast was nonuniform. Trivandrum district was relatively less affected, children, fishermen and tourists escaped, though the death toll both 50 miles north and 50 miles south was in the hundreds.

There is some information on tsunamis here which shows they are not easy to predict without complex models of the ocean floor:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54530-2005Jan6.html

Damage Is Tied to Ocean Floor
Tsunami Hit Hardest in Areas East, West of Quake Epicenter

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 7, 2005; Page A14

Along the shores of Sri Lanka, the tsunami that has killed more than 140,000 people first appeared as a rapidly rising tide -- a phenomenon more akin to a quickly filling bathtub than a bona fide wave.

To the east, on the Thai islands of Phuket and Phi Phi, the same tsunami made landfall as a train of intense, cresting waves that washed ashore with brutal impact.



And on the little islands of Diego Garcia and Mauritius, east of Madagascar, that very same wave -- barreling across the Indian Ocean at about 400 mph -- wreaked virtually no damage as it washed by, according to officials.

Like the mercurially morphing villain in the movie ``Terminator 2,`` a tsunami can have many faces.

Why the apparent capriciousness? The answer, scientists said, lies in a few rules of physics that govern the behavior of waves as they travel through water.

Last month`s disparities started when a plate of Earth`s crust slipped abruptly beneath an adjoining slab of rock under the seas just west of Sumatra. Unlike an asteroid impact, which would send out concentric circles of energy in all directions equally, this geologic event was primarily a sideways motion. That meant that from the start, the waves it sent east and west carried much more energy than those headed north or south, said Steven Ward, a geophysicist at the University of California at Santa Cruz, who has generated a detailed computer model of the tsunami`s progression (visible at www.es.ucsc.edu/~ward/indo.mov).

That reality -- along with the fact that shorelines happened to be closer to the east and west of the epicenter than to the north or south -- helps explain why vulnerable countries to the far north and south, such as Bangladesh and Mauritius, suffered relatively little, compared with Sri Lanka to the west and Thailand to the east.

Yet Sri Lanka and Thailand experienced the tsunami very differently, even though they both lay along that dangerous east-west axis. Those differences, scientists said, point to the most important determinant of a tsunami`s personality as it comes ashore.

``Basically, it`s the shape of the bottom,`` said Jeffrey Weissel, a senior research scholar at Columbia University`s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York.

In a nutshell, Weissel and others said, land masses that poke abruptly from the deep ocean experience tsunamis as diffusely rising tides, while those bounded by shallower seas get hit by higher, steeper and often more destructive waves.

At the core of this truth -- as with most truths in physics -- is an equation: v = square root (g times h), where v is the wave`s velocity, g is the force of gravity and h is the depth of the water. In plain English, as the water gets shallower, waves slow down.

That is a common-sense observation, but one with an unexpected consequence: These slower waves end up packing extra punch.

There are two keys to understanding why. One is that a tsunami is not just one wave but a train of waves, typically half a dozen or more, each a little weaker than the one ahead of it but all packing tremendous energy. The waves are generally a few feet high in deep ocean, and their wavelengths -- the distance between the swells -- can be a mile or more.

When a tsunami`s leading wave slows down as it enters shallower water, others behind it -- still in deep water -- do not. They pile on from behind, shortening the distance between waves and adding to the height of the leading waves, said Andrew Ingersoll, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

The second key, Ingersoll said, is that the slowing of waves in shallow waters is simply a reflection of how waves behave in limited space. It is not because of friction on the ocean bottom. That is important because it means that, although the wave is slowing, it is not giving up energy. All that energy is being rearranged within a slower but newly steepened wave, not to be released until it hits buildings, trees, people and anything else in its way.

``The total energy is the same, but it`s concentrated,`` Ingersoll said.

With those rules in hand, a look at the Indian Ocean`s bottom geography explains a lot about what happened Dec. 26. The ocean, it turns out, is quite shallow off Thailand`s west coast, with huge expanses less than 500 meters (1,640 feet) deep. So shallow and wave-slowing are those waters that last month`s tsunami hit the Thai coast well after it hit the east coast of India, which is more than twice as far away but lies across deeper seas.

When the slow, steep, closely packed waves hit Thailand and Sumatra, they did so with brutal force. By contrast, the string of waves that hit Sri Lanka -- a giant island that rises steeply out of water that is as much as 3,500 meters (11,500 feet) deep -- were low, broad and still spaced far apart. Although the damage was still great as those big swells flowed rapidly ashore, they were so broad as to be perceived as rising and dropping tides rather than as waves.

``It looked more like a storm surge without the wind,`` said Weissel of Columbia.

Some islands suffered hardly any damage despite being directly in the tsunami`s track, highlighting other features that can affect wave behavior.

Facilities on the island of Diego Garcia, for example, which is British but is home to a U.S. military base, ``were not affected,`` according to the Navy. Although some skeptics have suggested the military may be downplaying damage at the sensitive installation, scientists said it was plausible that the island escaped harm because of two protective features: the sturdy ring of coral reefs surrounding it and the extremely deep Chagos Trench just to the east, which may have disrupted some of the wave forms as they approached the island.

Environmentalists this week were quick to pick up on the wave-deflecting benefits of coral reefs. Friends of the Earth said the tough natural barriers, many of which are suffering from the effects of pollution and warming oceans, are among the best ways to protect coastal communities from the risk of future tsunamis.

picture

hamidm:

yes, another wonderful dichotomy...in east lives are almost worthless...and the pendulum swings the other way here...go up the texas tower or montreal university and shoot down 20 students and there would be a guaranteed brawl between pro and anti capital punishment folks for the life of the perpetrator...

..and yes i know where you come from:)...

...incidentally why this silence here?...another storm?

temporal,

......... it is not that the poor don`t count, or there arn`t any `good` people in pakistan .........and on occassion we are are overcome by collective grief and guilt and will put on grand shows of generosity ............. but, generally speaking, it is also true that when you are exposed to poverty, misery and injustice day in and day out, you become immune to it ......... a dead faqir on the side of the road in karachi or pindi rarely slows down the traffic while a trapped whale tranfixes a nation for a week............ it is a question of priorities ...... i can see the obvious counter arguments but i think you know what i am talking about

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hamidm:

fyi

last night surfing channels saw ary network telethon...couldn`t be sure if it was live or replay...shahihd hussain was anchoring along with maqsood anwar and rotating guests that included entertainment industry folks from india and pakistan...they had raised over $1.6 mil by then from their subscribers in Pakistan, USA, mid east africa europe and india (through lashkara sp?)

Why Indians are not willing to help their own?
This is a huge tragedy but Indians fail to rise above petty caste differences.
There is a serious need of introspection amongst Indians.


http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/jan/03amit1.htm

When we reach Padasalai, one of the worst-affected areas in the district of Nagore, the locals rush up to us and say, ``only the Muslims came.`` It takes us a bit of time to figure this out. These people are lower-caste people, and for that reason, none of the other residents of Nagore, mostly higher-caste Hindus, came to their aid.
Instead, Muslims groups came forward and helped them. Later, people like Madhu Kumar did come forward, but they were from outside. Their neighbours just did not care.
A short while later, we are by the sea, watching a heavy earth-moving vehicle, so much in shortage throughout the state, making a grave besides a pile of rubble, and then lifting a grotesquely deformed woman`s body out of it to put her in. But it`s not as easy as it sounds. Twice the metal claw scoops her into her grip, twice she slips out, and the second time, she gets stuck in a fishing net coming out of the rubble. Kumar goes forward with a sickle to cut her free. But he is asked to wait.
We wait for five minutes, wondering what the fuss is all about. Then we find out. A government official has to take a photograph of the body, for relief and identification purposes. He eventually arrives, takes her photograph, and goes off. We all look on, bewildered. The body has no face.
But we do know one thing. She is not, or rather, was not, an upper-caste Hindu.

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=62212

They are survivors from 63 damaged villages—30 of them flattened—all marooned in their own islands, facing the brunt of a majority of fishermen who are from the Meenavar community—listed in official records as Most Backward Class (MBC)—for whom Dalits are still untouchable.

The Indian Express toured the camps to find an old story of caste hatred being replayed in camp after camp:

• In the GVR Marriage Hall Relief Camp, Dalits cannot drink water from tanks put up by UNICEF. The Meenavars say they ‘‘pollute’’ the water.

• In the Nallukadai Street Relief Camp, a Meenavar Thalaivar, or leader, grabbed all cartons of glucose biscuits delivered by a Coimbatore NGO. The Dalits were told: these are not for you.

• At Puttur Relief Camp, the Meenavars have hoarded family relief kits, rice packets, new clothes and other relief material. When the Dalits asked for some, they paid a heavy price—they had to spend the night on the road.

• At the Neelayadatchi Temple Camp, Dalits are not allowed inside the temple, especially when rice and cash doles are being handed out.

• Dalits from three villages taking shelter at Ganapati cinema hall in Tharambagadi are thrown out every night because the Meenavar fisherwomen say they did not ‘‘feel safe’’ falling sleep with Dalits around.

• So 32 ostracised Dalit families took shelter in the GRM girls’ school in Thanjavur. But four days ago, even the school asked them to vacate saying it was due to re-open.

Those doing the discriminating brush all this aside. Says Chellayya, a Meenavar fisherman at a Tharambagadi camp: ‘‘These Dalits have been playing mischief, going back to the villages and looting houses. That’s why we don’t want them around here.’’

To which Dalit activist K Darpaya says: ‘‘What’s left in the houses for Dalits to take? And where will they keep the loot even if we assume they have taken something? In the relief camps? On the road side?’’

There’s an irony here. For, the district administration and relief agencies have to depend on the strong network of Meenavar fishermen to disburse aid and relief. But so rampant has the discrimination become that relief in-charge for Nagapattinam district Shantasheela Nayar, Secretary, Rural Development, is deputing District Adi Dravidar Welfare Officers to relief camps.

‘‘They will look into the problem and report back on what can be done to put an end to this. We certainly do not discriminate but if the fishermen themselves are doing it because of their local status, what can the government do?’’ says Nayar.

Talk to some of the victims and instead of bitterness and anger, there is grief and helplessness.

‘‘In Nagapattinam, three relief camps we went to denied us shelter saying they had no space. At the Nataraja Damayanti high school, the watchman refused to let us in,’’ says Murugeshan.

At first, the families did not understand why but as door after door slammed in their faces, it became clearer. They approached their local municipal councillor K Tilagar. ‘‘He assured us we would be given shelter soon but he disappeared,’’ says another survivor Anjamma.

In the neighbouring GVR camp, Dalit fishermen said they are being nudged out of relief and compensation queues. ‘‘We are inside the camp but kept in the far corner. Whenever officials and trucks come to give food, we are left out because nobody allows us to get near the trucks. Some men form a ring around us and prevent us from moving ahead in the queue,’’ says Saravanan, a Dalit survivor.

‘‘The Meenavars are more privileged as they get to sleep inside the rooms and are first to receive food and water. We have to sleep outside in the verandahs or in the open ground,’’ says Jivanana.

Kesavan, a Dalit of Nambiarnagar, says he was prevented from drinking water from a plastic tank put up in the hamlet on Monday. ‘‘We are forced to bring water in plastic cans from outside the village. The Collector’s office has put up the tank here and provides clean water but it is not for us,’’ he says.

V Vanitha, a Class X Dalit student, says adolescent girls are prevented from using toilet areas at Tharambagadi. ‘‘Small children have no problem but it is an ordeal for us. There are no toilets here and they prevent us from going to the area which serves as an open toilet,’’ she says.

Says activist Darpaya: ‘‘Dalits are not allowed to drink water from tanks put up by UNICEF. Even in relief camps, Meenavars don’t want to sit with Dalits and have food. Some of them manage to get rice but other relief items coming in like biscuit packets, milk powder and family household kits are denied to Dalits.’’

Says M Jayanthi, a coordinator of South Indian Fishworkers Society (SIFS): ‘‘Dalits are facing discrimination in all relief camps where they are present. But society does not want to raise the issue as it would complicate things further. Without making it public, we are opening separate facilities for Dalits exclusively,’’ she says.

Sevai, an NGO-based in Karaikal, Pondicherry, 20 kms from Nagapattinam, is the first organisation to address the issue.

Coordinator R Indrani says: ‘‘Since Dalits are not receiving sufficient food and water, we have started cooking for them in separate kitchens. They come from wherever they are taking shelter and we provide them whatever they want. We are also considering separate camps for them.’’

Several NGOs which noticed the problem raised the issue during their meeting with District Collector M Veerashanmugha Moni. ‘‘But no one is willing to take up the matter at the field level as this could complicate things. We don’t want friction between the two castes by trying to address it during this crisis,’’ says the team leader of NGO Accord, which is working among Dalits.

The headlines from IE

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=62212

Tsunami can’t wash this away: hatred for Dalits

In Ground Zero, Dalits thrown out of relief camps, cut out of food, water supplies, toilets, NGOs say they will start separate facilities

hamidm #35 I am afraid changing the venue of the breakfast to rawalpindi does nothing except make me homesick for good old pindi. After all, I read about deaths in the tsunami every morning without affecting my breakfast in any way.

All I was saying was that despite the beliefs of that dainty young lady in the pickwick papers I mentioned, the poor do bleed and feel the pain when cut. And when parents loses a child to the sea, they feel the pain just as much regardless of whether they are rich swedes vacationing in phuket or poor sri lankans fishermen scraping a living in galle.

Here`s an informative article lifted from WSJ online.
But first, we just observed the 20th anniversary of Bhopal. The affected communities have seen very little of the compensation paid out by Union Carbide. Apparently GOI is still trying to assess after all these years who should be compensated. Meanwhile deformed babies are being born, the poison has wreaked havoc on the harmonal system of post-pubescent boys & girls, and the affected communities are still living in a polluted environment, drinking polluted water.
Contrast this to the hue and cry over a natural disaster that, with hindsight, may have been somewhate mitigated. Onto WSJ:

Why There Was No Warning
The science--and culture--of tsunami ``hazard mitigation.``

BY COSTAS SYNOLAKIS
Wednesday, December 29, 2004 12:01 a.m. EST

In the aftermath of the horrific Asian tsunamis of Dec. 26, which have killed more than all 20th-century tsunamis combined, many attempts will be made to place blame or quickly ``fix`` this problem. A little reflection on the history of past reaction to destructive tsunamis may help.

The history of tsunami hazard mitigation tracks well with the history of destructive tsunamis in the U.S. Following the 1946 Alaska tsunami that destroyed the Scotch Cap lighthouse in Unimak, Alaska, and then killed 173 people in Hawaii, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center was established in Hawaii by a predecessor agency to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Following the 1960 Chilean tsunami that killed 1,000 people in Chile, 61 in Hawaii and 199 in Japan, the International Tsunami Information Center, sponsored by the U.N., was formed to coordinate tsunami warning efforts of the Pacific countries. Many research and mitigation efforts were focused on the distant tsunami problem, ignoring the local tsunamis that we now know as far more common. Following the 1964 Alaskan tsunami that killed 120 people in the U.S., the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, was established to confront the local tsunami problem. In 1968, the International Coordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific was formed by Unesco. Its purpose was to assure that tsunami watches, warning and advisory bulletins are disseminated throughout the Pacific to member states in accordance with specific procedures. It presently has 26 member states out of the 129 that participate in the U.N. Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. No membership fees are required, but a member country has to petition for the service and identify local disaster management officers capable to interpret and act in the event of a tsunami warning.

In 1992, a 7.2 earthquake in California generated a tsunami that killed no one. It was the first subduction zone earthquake recorded on the U.S. West Coast with modern instruments. It triggered concern that larger earthquakes could generate large local tsunamis along the heavily populated West Coast. In response, the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program was formed in 1997.

Two innovations of the program were to create a tsunami forecasting capability and to introduce the concept of tsunami-resilient communities. At the same time, tsunamis started being reported around the Pacific Rim, on average about once a year. The National Science Foundation funded even junior scientists and encouraged them to conduct field surveys to gather data to help validate the models and thus help build the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration`s forecasting capability. Combined, these innovations constitute a major advance in tsunami hazard mitigation for both local and distant tsunamis. Currently, inundation maps exist for many communities in the U.S.

To forecast tsunamis, tsunami measurements from the deep ocean are required. It took about 30 years to transform the idea of measuring tsunamis in the deep ocean to actually reporting such data in real time. The technical feat of transmitting data from an instrument on the sea floor at great ocean depths to a tsunami warning center in real time required exceptionally creative engineering. The new tsunami measuring technology has given science a new instrument--the tsunameter--that provides tsunami researchers and practitioners with the basic information to understand and predict tsunamis.

The second technology required to predict tsunamis is numerical models of tsunami dynamics. The tsunameter/model combination has transformed the warning function from tsunami detection to tsunami forecasting. In operational use, the tsunameter/model will eventually lead to accurate tsunami forecasts that save lives. Accurate forecasts lead to fewer false alarms that cost in lost productivity and in lost confidence in the warning system.

The images from Sri Lanka, India and Thailand that have filled our screens--and the descriptions from survivors--are sadly all too familiar, at least to those of us who have conducted tsunami field surveys. At times, some of us thought that we were revisiting images from Flores in 1992, or East Java in 1994, Irian Jaya in 1996, Papua New Guinea in 1998 and Vanuatu in 1999--to just mention catastrophes in countries with similar landscape and coastal construction.

The response of local residents and tourists, however, was unfamiliar, at least to tsunami field scientists for post-1990s tsunamis. In one report, swimmers felt the current associated with the leading depression wave approaching the beach, yet hesitated about getting out of the water because of the ``noise`` and the fear that there was an earthquake and they would be safer away from buildings. They had to be told by tourists from Japan--a land where an understanding of tsunamis is now almost hard-wired in the genes--to run to high ground. In another report, vacationers spending the day on Phi Phi were taken back to Phuket one hour after the event started. In many cases tsunami waves persist for several hours, and the transport was nothing less than grossly irresponsible.

Contrast these reactions with what happened in Vanuatu, in 1999. On Pentecost Island, a rather pristine enclave with no electricity or running water, the locals watch television once a week, when a pickup truck with a satellite dish, a VCR and a TV stops by each village. When the International Tsunami Survey Team visited days after the tsunami, they heard that the residents had watched a Unesco video prepared the year before, in the aftermath of the 1998 Papua New Guinea tsunami disaster. When they felt the ground shake during the 1999 earthquake, they ran to a hill nearby. The tsunami swept through, razing the village to the ground. Out of 500 people, only three died, and all three had been unable to run like the others. The tsunami had hit at night.

The angry questions that hundreds of thousands of family members of victims are asking, especially in Sri Lanka and India, are ``what happened?``--and ``why did no one warn us before the tsunami hit?`` The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had issued a tsunami bulletin and had concluded that there was no danger for the Pacific nations in its jurisdiction. Why didn`t it extend its warning to South and Southeast Asia? It is perhaps clear with hindsight that an Indian Ocean tsunami warning center should have been in place, or that the Indian Ocean nations should have requested coverage from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Clearly, the hazard had been grossly underestimated. To give governments the benefit of the doubt, the last transoceanic tsunami that had hit the region was in 1882, and this was caused by Krakatoa`s eruption. Other large earthquakes along the Sumatra trench had not caused major tsunamis, or if they had, they had not been reported as devastating. Floods occur nearly every year, as do storms. Natural hazards that are less frequent tend to be ignored. No nation can be ready for every eventuality--as 9/11 painfully demonstrated--at least before a major disaster that identifies the risk. Without the governments of Indian Ocean nations having identified the risk, they probably did not feel they needed the services of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, however free. Even simple and inexpensive mitigation strategies such as public education possibly did not even occur as a possibility. The rapid tourist development of Sri Lanka may also have contributed to the government`s inaction toward suggesting that some of the region`s most beautiful shorelines may have hidden dangers.

But the occurrence of this massive and destructive tsunami does prove that megatsunamis can occur in the Indian Ocean. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission should continue its efforts to develop a long-term approach to tsunami hazard mitigation through a coordinated program involving assessment, warning guidance, and mitigation aimed at at-risk communities. Improved numerical wave propagation models, new scientific studies to document paleotsunamis, and the deployment of tsunameters will help better monitor tsunami occurrences and develop inundation maps that will guide evacuation plans. As is done among Pacific nations, Indian ocean scientists, disaster managers, policy makers, and local communities need to work together toward the common goal of creating tsunami-resistant communities with access to accurate, timely tsunami warnings. A tsunami warning center needs to be established as soon as practical in the region, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center should act as an interim warning center.

Many developing countries do not have the resources and will need substantial assistance. Even among nations in the Pacific rim, only three have comprehensive inundation maps, and none, including the U.S., have probabilistic tsunami flooding maps that reflect the realities of the past 30 years. Unesco`s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the U.S. should help the effort in implementing the U.N.`s global tsunami hazard mitigation plan before the next Asian tsunami disaster strikes.

Mr. Synolakis is professor of civil engineering at the University of Southern California.

thamed,

sorry, the question on the test might have been a little misleading, here it is agian :

what do you say at the breakfast table in pindi or islamabad when you read the headline :`` 60 die in head-on collision of two busses on gt road``

a) pass the butter
b) pass the salt
c) pass the milk
d) pass the paratha

.......... now i am sure you will get the right answer .......... of course, if you want to believe that people sit around the table for the next two hours praying for the poor souls or rush out to help with the relief effort you may do so if it makes you feel any better about yourself ..........

To be fair, it should be noted that the Atlantic Ocean does not have a tsunami warning system either. Now, plans to wire up the Indian Ocean are being matched by similar plans for the Atlantic. It is human nature to close the barn door after the horse is stolen - I am not defending this lack of emergency preparedness, just pointing out something to keep things in perspective.

hamidm #29 Unfortunately the newspaper I read during breakfast, being written for an audience half way around the world from Pakistan, does not carry news of minivan accidents on GT road.

Of course it carries all sorts of other bad news, and if I stopped eating every time I read about death in the newspaper, I would probably myself die myself through starvation. I will grant you that ``Children go hungry due to tsunami`` is news, while ``Children go hungry due to poverty`` is not news. And that is the real injustice we face - the same generosity that the tsunami has brought out needs to be there to ensure that no child anywhere goes hungry to bed, or grows up without proper schooling.

My asking Udayakumar what is his idea of development = taking his case(which is very disturbing to Pakis, the poor things).

If the main victim er hero the author was here, he might have to answer what is his idea of development if he does not like power plants. Such a harsh question, how cruel I am, victimising not only the author but scaring these poor Pakis out of their wits.

thamed,

here is a simple quiz for you :

....... what do you say at the breakfast table when you read the headline :`` 60 die in head-on collision of two busses on gt road``

a) pass the butter
b) pass the salt
c) pass the milk
d) pass the paratha

.......... i am sure you got the right answer - nobody from the sub continent has ever failed this test ........

Ref Rakapo$h #28

[I thought this article was genuine and sincere.]

The only guys who are the least bit sincere about India and poor Indians are those people who don`t give a damn about other Indians and are intent on amassing wealth through some business enterprise. Because these people employ tens of thousands of others directly and hundreds of thousands of others indirectly. They pay taxes which enriches the government coffers too. The rest are all leeches and hangers-on who are looking for an opportunity to rip the public off or to demand a subsidy for some unprofitable trade which they have been practicing for 3,000 years but don`t have the business skills to cut out the middleman and reach the consumers directly so that they could pocket more of the money. My example here would be the weavers of silk saris which enrich all the Chettiars/banias who sell them in their stores in any city in India but the weavers themselves remain poor. As to the fishermen, going out to the sea in wooden rafts with a small net in hand ain`t going to get them out of poverty nor is fishing by thousands of them within three miles of the shore going to keep the stocks of fish from depleting.

[An Indian demanding to know why nothing was done to save the lives of thousands AND would it be done in future or not ( still ) ?]

Exactly what could be done? Tsunamis travel at 900 kmph or more, the speed of jetliners, in open ocean. They cannot be detected in the open ocean because they are a small swell, not a huge wave. They become huge waves when they reach shallow water. So unless you have seismic monitoring stations using sensitive equipment and technology -- all of which probably would have been denounced as an unnecessary expense in a poor country like India by Manamuthus like Udayakumar, PhD, and the use of inappropriate technolgy as opposed to the age-old wisdom of watching the animals to detect strange behavior and feeling the arthritis in one`s knees act up as the humidity increases, etc. -- you can`t do much. So the first thing that the Masanamuthus should demand is the shutting down of Institutes for the Application of Appropriate Technolgy (meaning, appropriate to the third world and not appropriate to the threat on hand). But they can`t and they won`t because railing against technology is their bread and butter; witness Udayakumar`s repeated rantings against power plants.

Even if you have the most excellent scientific listening posts, they need to be manned by people who feel responsible for doing their jobs. So long as jobs are handed out based on whether you are named Ananthapadmanabhan (you don`t get a job with a name like that) or Senthamizh Selvan (you would be hired in a jiffy), there is no reason for those who are manning these positions to do a good job. Even the much-vaunted IAS whereby these super Indians are trained at government academies to do everything from running Air India (into the ground) or a nuclear power plant to managing the development of a district fell short in Tamil Nadu -- because again the Ananthapadmanabhans who pass the IAS opt for Central service or a job in Nagaland rather than work with, for and among people named Doctor Artist Leader the Fund of Compassion or Love King, knowing that these thugs would employ violence against civil servants who don`t toe the line -- and had to be replaced from the pool of equally incompetent mufukas. Short of taking out and shooting everyone connected with a failure a la Stalin (I mean the original, not the son of Doctor Artist Leader the Fund of Compassion), a work ethic cannot be installed among Indians.

[The more disturbing thing is actually seeing all the Indians getting on his case. Very disturbing.]

You should be thankful that we see through this man`s charade.

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I thought this article was genuine and sincere.
An Indian demanding to know why nothing was done to save the lives of thousands AND would it be done in future or not ( still ) ?

The more disturbing thing is actually seeing all the Indians getting on his case. Very disturbing.

Udayakumar is an Indian version of Dr. Hoodbhoy. I am glad to see that Indians have treated him with the contempt that his kind deserves. Not that Pakistanis would treat Dr. Hoodbhoy any differently, God is my witness that I have called him the Punjabi equivalent of ``Massamunthu Fund of Compassion`` several times, it`s just that chowk would never post such an interact. It`s heartening that chowk has not given Udaya the same sacred cow status.

re:#21 by AlephNull
Thanks for the info.
This makes it all the more imperative that some kind of detectors be placed along the coast and India join other nations in detection of Tsunami in future.
I also take back my word of criticism against ISRO. I now realize that satellites can`t detect a Tsunami. I now realize only the sensors on ground can do that.
Sridhar

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actually the people at colachel(normally a spectacular fishing village in kanyakumari district) were very upset with VIP visits an would not allow them to enter the town. The only person they allowed was Manmohan Singh who I must say handled the situation with sensitivity and ski