From a friend who has worked for years on the Andaman/Nicobar islands. He repeated this when I called him.
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This might sound premature and callous, but every developmental and environmental norm has been violated in the isalnds over the last couple of decades. A lot of the loss of life has been due to this. I think we owe it to the residents there to ensure this doesn't happen again.
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How many places/disasters can we say this about?
I head for Chennai tomorrow (Wed), and am thinking about heading for the Andamans afterwards. Let's see. Tidal wave disaster updates from there if I can manage it, here and/or on the excellent SEA-EAT. Visit there to find out about helping.
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9 comments:
Hi Dillip,
I guess you should be aware of the article published in yesterday titled "Give *** others may live again ***" (something like that).
Such a sick article it was. That guy was corelating these tsunami incidents to "uknown power" generated due to the arrest of shankaracharya and he even went to the extent of describing it as "christmas quake" and also tried to downplay christianity as a religion itself.
Iam just wondering if my point of view is correct after reading it. Such morons are the kind of narrow-uncompromising-religious extremists that this nation is witnessing, on the rise.
I felt agitated that this stupid stuff was published as well huh!.
would like to hear your comments, pls post.
I grew up in Andamans - 17 years in those pristine islands- .I remember that the early houses were almost completely made of wood and never exceeded three floors.This was what the British had imposed- as the islands were sitting on a earth quake ring- but soon we got 'independent' and the rules were relaxed and laxed.. when i left the islands in 94, concrete monstrosities were replacing the wooden buildings..
Dilip:
I can't help but feel a similar sentiment - I've had similar conversations with a colleague outside of Tokyo (he teaches English as a Second Language there, but his real love is Anthropology - he's made dozens of treks throughout India, including Chennai, and on a tsunami-related note he's also made many many trips to Thailand, and has stayed in all of the afflicted areas - Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, Krabi, and so on - so he speaks from first-hand experience).
I had read somewhere on the Web where a U.S. environmental agency pundit said something to the effect that the destruction of all the mangroves along the seashore (this is Thailand he was talking about, I believe) and moving people in there (whereas they used to live in villages inland instead) was a big factor in hastening their doom. When I mentioned this to my colleague, he replied
"I'd have to agree for the most part, I'm not an eco-Nazi by any means, but there are some places that should be left alone from the ravages of mass, el cheapo tourism - but most governments, with the odd exception like Bhutan, just don't get it and are willing to sell out the most beautiful parts of their countries for short-term profit and long-term degradation"
Dilip,
Does your silence mean that you agree to my opinion? (Pls refer to my previous comment. I had given it under the wrong title though)
Iam bewildered at how this article was allowed to be published first of all!???
Pls let me know how correct i was in understanding the message conveyed in that fellows' article.
Waiting for ur reply.
Anonymous, no -- my silence only means I am in Chennai now, hoping to start moving through some of the affected areas and unsure of net access. I agree with you, Rajeev Srinivasan's article was simply absurd. Luckily, most of the readers who have responded to it seem to agree. What a perverse thing to say.
Got to run.
Anonymous, what article are you talking about? Which web site? Rajeev Srinivasan's articles are the worst form of bigotry. I would like to see what he said.
ramiah ariya!, the title of the article was
Give *** others may live again ***" (something like that)...
Rajeev Srinivasan writes very very well. If someone urges you to be more nationalistic and patriotic, is that bad? If you cant accept it, go get a life.
If someone urges you to be more nationalistic and patriotic, is that bad?Of course. Silly us. He did tell us that the tsunami is revenge "from Up There about the atrocities being visited on the Kanchi Acharya". That's urging us to be more nationalistic and patriotic. Right. Thank you.
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