Last Thursday, a summit was held in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta to discuss the relief operations mounted by the international community for the tsunami victims of South and Southeast Asia. The tsunamistruck on Dec. 26, 2004, killing over 150,000 and wiping out the homes and properties of many more. A fortnight after the disaster, the death toll is still rising.
The summit was attended by as many as 23 heads of state and government as well as officials of four international organizations.
It could, no doubt, help alleviate the sufferings of the victims. But the pledges of aid announced by the summit fall far short of the needs of the helpless victims whose countries do not have the wherewithal for mounting adequate relief and rehabilitation operations. With all the help from the international community, it will take years before the hapless victims finally got over the trauma and sufferings.
The summit called for relief efforts on a war footing and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for another summit as part of an international campaign for the relief programs.
The aid flow to the region has not been as swift as expected or required. Several rich countries are found to be a bit tardy in extending help to the wave-stricken regions. A prime example is the US, which responded initially with a miserly $35 million, which was then raised to $350 million under international pressure. The European Union has raised circa $134 million. The rest of the world has chipped in with contributions in cash and kind. All this wouldn’t be enough to meet the requirements on the ground.
No wonder, Kofi Annan has urged the world to donate $979 million without delay, which would provide relief to some five million victims for just six months. This only shows the gap between the aid, which has arrived or in the pipeline and the aid required.
Undoubtedly, the magnitude of death and destruction caused by the tsunami has stunned the world. It has exposed the incapability of the world in facing natural calamities, which can strike any time and any place.
The world nations, especially the big powers, can create wars in no time and spend lots of money on destructive weapons. They are keen on activating the mechanism of destruction in every nook and corner of the world but become helpless when it comes to rescuing human lives from natural calamities.
— Essa bin Mohammed Al-Zedjali is editor in chief of The Times of Oman.
