|
The word
tsunami of Japanese origin has surely taken now
a place in universal language meaning disaster.
The current difficult phase in our time and our
response will be judged by future historians as
good, bad and ugly tsunami. We are witnessing
tsunami at three different fronts.
On first front which affected many nations and
people where close to 165,000 lost their lives
literally within hours as killer waves pounded
shorelines of many south Asian countries. The
incoming waves of Indian Ocean unfurled its
giant white waves as a shroud on these innocent
souls and left millions to mourn. It is truly a
tragedy of million grief. The World's reaction
was fairly quick as individuals, groups and
nations around the globe responded in time of
need and opened their wallets as no generation
before. The torrent of pledges in response to
this epic tragedy & disaster is a testimony to
human solidarity as well as to the power of
today's global media; a massive aid soared close
to $6 Billion Dollars as of today.
Contributions include not only the
well-publicized responses from rich nations, but
also less-noticed donations from countries and
regions themselves burdened with pressing day to
day needs for their own populations. For India's
part is admirable when the Federal Government
refused to take aid package and they directed
the donor nations to help other countries like
Sri Lanka or Indonesia as they suffered more. It
is needless to say that India showed strength in
times of calamity and some would justify that it
was a political decision. It is a different
matter that who donated what and how much? One
should appreciate when the poorest of the poor
country like Mozambique donates 100,000 dollars
to this relief fund and may be they are at the
bottom of the list of donor nation; watching
school kids on the streets of Ahmedabad
polishing boots of pedestrians to collect money
for this aid; people in Kashmir lining up to
donate their blood for the needy in far off
place like Andaman & Nicobar Islands- scenes
like this show the best face of humanity.
The combined efforts and eagerness of people and
the Governments from all over the world to help
and be part of this noble cause by sending multi
nation armies, aid providing officials, medics
are overwhelming. Many individual volunteers
have taken the task to help the victims and
their enthusiasm is really admirable.
Multi-nations' fleets arriving at the doors of
affected countries with load of goods and
assuring the victims that they are not alone in
this time of tragedy shows the caring nature of
mankind. Even though millions are still mourning
over this tragedy, every body feels good that in
future tsunamis will come and go. But, if the
world shows compassion and acts fast like this,
survivors will rise from the ruins, dust off
their troubles and they will start to build
their lives again.
I would like to term this response as a Good
tsunami as we have shown that if people unite,
they can even defeat the darkness in their
hearts.
On second front, we are watching the gradual
destruction of a Nation-Iraq.
In the name of terrorism and counter terrorism
America and Al-Qaeda are testing their "weapons
of mass destruction" every day in Iraq .This
type of man-made tsunami has taken more or less
the same number of lives in Asia so far, and
when it will end; nobody can predict. It is
almost forgotten that this tsunami in Iraq is
also a killer: A nation that now knows only one
season- the season of destruction which arrives
like falling bombs, dancing rockets in the mid
air and flying bullets everywhere. We in our own
countries who can smell the beautiful flowers in
the spring, touch and feel the summer winds,
watch the colour full bright leaves in the fall
and feel cool air in during winter; all these
four beautiful cycles of seasons repeat every
year for us but not for the Iraqi population.
Even when somebody survives the attacks, they
keep on biting dusts, wipe their blood from
their wounds and still remain open as targets of
tsunami weapons of the American army and the
terrorists/insurgents. Who speaks for them?
Where is the rest of the world who showed
compassion and shed tears in town halls around
the world to mourn the Asian tsunami? Frankly, I
don't think I can do any thing to stop this. Do
you? This is a Bad tsunami and for which there
is no relief team, nobody weeps for them and
seems as if nobody's heart bleeds for these
innocent victims in Iraq.
On the third front, AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria
in Africa alone kill 40 times than other
tsunamis every year, taking no fewer than 6
million lives. While the tsunami aid pledge in
Asia continues to mount close to $6 Billion
dollars, United Nations scramble for the $3
Billion dollars a year in order to combat these
killer diseases in Africa. This is the tsunami
of much greater proportions created by
negligence, ignorance and greed raising
fundamental questions: Can the response to the
tsunami be carried over to even more devastating
crisis that are less photogenic, such as AIDS,
conflict and poverty? No doubt this needs much
greater pledges, resources and quick action to
combat this Ugly tsunami in Africa.
|
Comments: |
|
Such articles must be read by the
leaders of the world , who would
either destroy the earth one day by
War machines or would make the
heaven on earth as we all dream.
Congratulations Raj. A great
article. Keep your intellectual
spirit high and keep such writings
alive. - Bidhu S Jha 1/14/05 |
|
Discussion on this topic is now
closed. |
Return to previous Page |
