Wave of Mutilation

It only took a nanosecond. Ten kilometres below the surface of the earth one tectonic plate slipped over another. It jumped by a metre and a half and all hell broke loose. You’ve seen the graphics, you’ve seen the video, you’ve seen the wave. Wham-bam, out of the blue and into the black.

We know the devastated area so well. First explored by searchers and backpackers, in recent years it’s opened up to a wider demographic. Your granny could be grey trekking there as we speak…
As many of us have. And if not to Phuket and Phi-Phi, then nearby. In these places we have found an image of paradise, gentle sea, warm breezes, grilled crab, cold beer, friendly faces. Couple that with the time of year and the sheer scale and horror of the disaster and you begin to understand why this catastrophe has had such impact.
Much has been said and written and since there’s little point in reiterating what others have said, I’ll confine myself to six points.
Firstly, natural disasters are not new, nor is death on a vast scale. More people died in the Tangshan earthquake in China in 1976 than in the Sumatra tsunami. A million died in Yellow River floods in 1887.
These disasters are part of the world we live in. Terrible, yes, but also unavoidable. There is nothing we can do about the movement of tectonic plates. We can’t stop earthquakes rumbling and volcanoes blowing. But we can respond more quickly, by adequate warning systems and by rapid disaster response systems.
Secondly, the actions of humans can accentuate or alleviate the impact of a natural disaster. The tsunami wasn’t man-made. Neither America nor Europe caused it. Nor did global warming or Osama bin-Laden. We now know that warnings could have been issued but weren’t because of fears or ineptitude. In addition, that part of the world has no tsunami early warning system, unlike the Pacific.
Thirdly, we are also vulnerable. Those who think this all refers to places far away should remember that Ireland is an island on the edge of one of the world’s great oceans and is as susceptible to tidal surges and tsunamis as anywhere.
It’s happened before. A tsunami generated by the Lisbon earthquake in 1755 took three to four hours to reach the west coast of Ireland where it altered the landscape and destroyed Coranroe castle in north Clare. The same tsunami also travelled across the Atlantic and waves as high as houses swamped the Caribbean.
Residents of Lisbon believe another quake is due. And geologists have pointed out that imminent volcanic action in the Canaries may dislodge a mountainside into the sea which will set off a massive tsunami that will wreak havoc on both sides of the Atlantic.
That may not be in my lifetime or yours, but what we do now will model the kind of early warning systems and supports that we ourselves, and the population of the east coast of the Americas, may sometime need.
Fourthly, with the aid agencies in overdrive the distinction between short-term (usually disaster-driven) crises (however catastrophic) and structural crises like famine and poverty in Africa is being ignored. The former requires very rapid deployment of medicines, supplies, water and shelter followed by rapid disengagement whereas the latter requires long-term strategic planning.
Certainly, the world has been mobilised in this disaster as never before and this may be because so many westerners were lost. This triggered a level of media interest and international mobilisation of resources not seen before. The contrast with the aftermath of the Bam earthquake in Iran in 2003 is striking.
Fifthly, NGOs make much of ‘needs’. But whose needs? Three sets can be identified, those of the recipients, those of the donors and those of the middlemen and it is not always clear whose needs are foremost.
Those in the regions affected by the tsunami are not wealthy compared with the Irish, but neither are they helpless. They don’t need to be colonised by aid armies and sucked into a culture of dependency. Give them food, water, shelter, medicines, boats and they will rebuild, and quickly at that. Having donated, get out of the way and let the locals and tourists refloat the economy.
Africa’s problems will take more than that.
Incidentally, I have a particular fear regarding the entrée that this disaster gives to western proselytisers and quacks like the Christian missionaries who are causing trouble in the Vietnamese and Cambodian highlands. And, while many people are deeply traumatised by events, western-style crisis counselling is not necessarily an appropriate response. At the very least they should be asked.
The sixth point concerns the level of hysteria and overkill evident in the media. That this was huge news is not at issue. But much of the coverage was voyeuristic and intrusive in the extreme. It often seemed to be driven not by the need of the viewers to see and to know but by those of the media to be seen and known.
This was an enormous calamity. Like 9/11 it will affect the way we live and think, the way we interpret our world, unstable and fragile as it is. But how it will change them is still open.
The next big global calamity probably won’t be an earthquake or tsunami, it’ll be the new strain of influenza which will originate in south east Asia also and is likely to kill hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions.
Most of those will be drawn from the toiling masses of the region. If a vaccine is developed we’ll have it before they do. And in all probability, when they do get access, they’ll have to pay. What price aid then? And where will the campaigning media be?