| By John O’Shea
Printed in Irish Examiner on 7th January 2005
Once again the world has been found wanting in its response to
natural disaster.
Almost a fortnight after the dreadful tsunamis swept across the
Indian Ocean leaving a catastrophic trail of death and destruction
in their path, world leaders sat down together in Jakarta yesterday
to discuss what needs to be done.
Not only was it not thought worthwhile to have an early warning
system in place, a measure which would have given people at least
an hour to get to higher ground thus saving countless lives, nor
has the international community their a plan of action for when
disaster struck. Because of this the response has been chaotic and
lacking leadership and coordination.
The world has no disaster plan and neither does it have any force
capable of implementing that plan if it existed. The lesson that
is crying out to be learned from all of this suffering and misery
is that we must in future, like the boy scouts, be prepared.
It is hardly a world shattering notion to suggest that we should
have an international rapid response force kept in readiness to
respond to disasters as soon as they occur but, despite many calls
from myself and many others, that force still does not exist.
If we are serious about offering humanitarian assistance to the
victims of natural disaster then the world must get organised. We
can send armies armed with guns, aircraft, bombs and all the other
paraphernalia of war into a situation at a moments notice but when
it comes to saving lives we are totally unprepared.
If a force of logistical experts, armed with the tools of life
rather than death, could be mobilised in the early hours of a disaster
then many thousands of lives could be saved. Sure, a disaster on
this scale will doubtless stretch any plan, test any force, but
without a plan we are left floundering around while people die.
The response would have been totally different if this disaster
had happened in the Pacific instead of the Indian Ocean. For a start
people would have known the tsunami was about to hit because an
early warning system has been in operation for over fifty years
since a tsunami hit Hawaii in 1946 and killed 125 people.
If the huge tidal waves had come ashore on the West Coast of the
USA and Japan you can rest assured the response would have been
substantially more energetic and the amounts of money pledged substantially
greater. Seven billion dollars was allocated to relief following
the Florida hurricane while, at the time of writing, just three
million has been pledged to the South East Asia disaster.
But this is not about amounts of money; it is to do with the state
of readiness of the international community and its attitude to
those in need. No matter where disaster strikes people should have
the expectation that they will not be left to their own devices,
to cope on their own against insurmountable odds.
The victims of drought and famine in Africa and those who have
lost everything to the giant waves of the Indian Ocean are just
as deserving of our assistance as those who in this part of the
world wake up to find their house in flames.
The world is without the equivalent of a fire brigade however and
so when disaster strikes we must rely on the neighbours throwing
buckets of water as large parts of our world go up in flames. It
simply isn’t good enough at a time when the world is wealthier
than ever that such a logistical force does not exist.
It is unusual for stories from the developing world to remain in
the media spotlight for very long. Whether it is because great numbers
of western tourists were caught up in this disaster or because of
the sheer scale of the events, this time the cameras are sticking
with the story and the whole world is getting a glimpse of the hard
realities of life for so many millions of people in the developing
world.
One can only hope that this will lead to a shift in attitudes among
western people and governments. Certainly it can be said without
a shadow of a doubt that rank and file people throughout the world
have risen to the occasion and shown how much they care about the
plight of their brothers and sisters in Asia in the only way open
to them – by donating to charities in unprecedented amounts.
It is important that governments too can be made to see that a
change of heart is necessary. The fact that the Jakarta meeting
has agreed to install an early warning system in the Indian Ocean
is a sign that, belatedly, world leaders may have realised that
they have been guilty of neglect for many years.
If a prominent politician or President’s family was missing
I wonder how many helicopters would have been drafted in by now?
If politicians could imagine that it was members of their own family
that they were attempting to rescue or help I’m sure their
response would be more urgent and thorough. We would certainly have
someone given the task of taking charge of the situation.
The mental scars of the survivors of this catastrophe may never
heal, their dead will certainly never return but the very least
the international community can do is to stick with this situation
for as long as it takes to put things back they were. It would be
a fitting memory to the thousands of victims that the international
community establish a logistical rapid reaction force aimed at reducing
the numbers of fatalities when next Mother Nature shows us her ugly
side.
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