Archive for Disaster Management
December 31, 2009 at 7:00 am · Categories: Disaster Management, Media and Communications, Politics and Governance | by Nalaka Gunawardene
Five years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, amateur radio helped revive emergency communications with some of the worst affected locations.
The decades old practice was hailed as the ‘low tech’ miracle that literally helped save lives. Where electricity and telephone services — both fixed and mobile — had been knocked down, amateur radio enthusiasts (or ‘radio hams’) restored the first communication links.
They were at the forefront of relief efforts, for example, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India, and in Hambantota in southern Sri Lanka.
[caption id="attachment_2343" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="When all else fails, shortwave persists…"]
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Within hours …
December 26, 2009 at 2:45 pm · Categories: Ampara, Disaster Management, IDPs and Refugees | by Dushi
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou, 4 April 1928
Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai in Saainthamaruthu
Today is the 5th anniversary of a tsunami that devastated our country.Five years on, but how many of us still care for the people who suffered?
The tsunami hit the Indian Ocean, killing nearly hundreds of thousands in eleven countries and inundating coastal communities with waves unto one hundred feet. According to experts, it was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India were the hardest hit.
About thirty thousand people were killed in tsunami, millions injured and many more left homeless …
December 26, 2009 at 7:00 am · Categories: Colombo, Disaster Management, Media and Communications | by Nalaka Gunawardene
On 26 December 2009, we mark the fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, one of the biggest and deadliest disasters in history. It left a trail of destruction across South and Southeast Asia, killing over 225,000 and shattering the lives of millions more.
For many of us in the media and communication sectors, this was the biggest story of our lives. Because the killer waves hit numerous coastal locations in several countries, this disaster’s ‘Ground Zero’ was scattered far and wide. Not even the largest news organisations could see, hear and capture everything. Everyone had to choose.
And not just geographically, but thematically too, the tsunami’s impact was felt across sectors, issues and concerns. That provided both ample scope and many …
December 11, 2009 at 12:30 pm · Categories: Arts and Theatre, Colombo, Disaster Management, Human Rights, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Media and Communications, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Reconciliation, War Crimes | by Groundviews
Obligingly recorded by Young Asia Television at the request of Groundviews, we are pleased to present a full-length video recording of a technical rehearsal / run-through of The Travelling Circus, produced by Mind Adventures, directed by Tracy Holsinger and recently staged in Colombo.
An in-depth review of the production is published on Groundviews here.
Total playing time is 52 minutes.
The production divided opinion, with some liking it and others, with equal passion, disliking it.
This full-length video of the production (even though it is a technical rehearsal) records for posterity one of the first theatre productions …
November 18, 2009 at 7:01 pm · Categories: Disaster Management, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict, Post-War, Vavuniya | by Groundviews
Last week a group of us got very rare access to some of the resettled areas in Mannar and Killinochchi. I also visited the different zones in Manik Farm (used to be called Manikkam Pannai). As we get to Vavuniya something that strikes me was the number of vehicles (buses and lorries) moving about with IOM stickers. IOM is the only agency that is allowed to shuttle the IDPs from Manik Farm to either to Vavuniya Urban Council (UC) ground or to the resettlement areas or to yet another transit center for further screening.
We reached Vavuniya around 10.30pm on Saturday. It was raining heavily and we witnessed IDPs, who have been brought from Manik Farm to be sent to their …
November 17, 2009 at 7:00 am · Categories: Colombo, Disaster Management, Economy, Foreign Relations, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees | by Prof. Rohan Samarajiva
Intellectuals in India have unfortunately not played positive roles in building good relations with its small neighbors. For the most part they ignore all neighbors other than Pakistan. In the few cases they do not, they tend to do active harm. The recent article in Forbes.com on 9 October 2009 (http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/08/tamil-tigers-rajiv-gandhi-opinions-contributors-sri-lanka.html) by Professor Brahma Chellaney exemplifies the latter.
Justifying cross-border terrorism
India is a country with many minorities. Would it like an external power describing one of its minorities as its “natural constituency” as Professor Chellaney does? I do not know quite what to make of this excerpt from his article: “India already had alienated the Sinhalese majority in the 1980s, when it first armed the Tamil Tigers and then sought …
November 6, 2009 at 9:47 am · Categories: Disaster Management, Gender, Human Rights, Human Security, Media and Communications, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Reconciliation | by Groundviews
Exactly three years after its launch, Groundviews published its 1000th post today. In it Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu identifies the site with quality debate and asks citizens to use it to canvass their ideas for constitutional reform, governance, human rights and the economy and whatever else they see as constituting essential elements of an agenda for change and reform.
Over three years, Groundviews has borne witness to that which traditional print and electronic media did not, and for well-known reasons, could not. Post-war for example, our path-breaking coverage of the situation facing IDPs in Menik Farm was picked up and featured on leading domestic and international media, including the New York Times, Al Jazeera and the BBC. The wealth of debate …
October 23, 2009 at 5:45 pm · Categories: Disaster Management, Environment, Human Rights | by Nalaka Gunawardene
The President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives in an exclusive interview with Nalaka Gunawardene
[caption id="attachment_1821" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Nalaka Gunawardene (left) and President Mohamed Nasheed in Male, Aug 2009"]
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The Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives is the smallest country in Asia – it packs 325,000 people into a land area just under 300 square kilometres. With an average ground level of 1.5 metres (5 feet) above sea level, it is also the lowest country on the planet, and now on the frontline of climate change impact. As the polar ice …
October 2, 2009 at 7:00 am · Categories: Disaster Management, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Vavuniya | by Dr. P. Saravanamuttu
“Nearly 20,000 escape from IDP centres was the headline of an English language broadsheet yesterday. The strap line read –“Most believed to be LTTE cadres”. The article quotes the SSP for Kandy Ranjit Kasturiratna as saying this at a meeting of the Kandy District Coordinating Committee chaired by the Chief Minister of the Central Province Sarath Ekanayake on Monday. The article goes on to say that according to the SSP special teams have been dispatched from Kandy to the IDP camps to conduct investigations.
This is not the first time this information has been reported in the media. Since the source of this information is a senior Police officer, we can assume that the information is reliable and accurate. Given the …
September 28, 2009 at 1:15 am · Categories: Disaster Management, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Vavuniya | by Rohini Hensman
[Editors note: An edited copy of this article appears in the Sunday Times of 27th September 2009. This is the full version.]
It was a relief to hear that the government was at last responding to mounting domestic and international criticism, and had begun releasing the Vanni IDPs. Perhaps the shocking report in the Sunday Times on 6 September about human trafficking at the internment camps was partly responsible. An exemplary piece of investigative journalism, it revealed that up to 20,000 IDPs have been ransomed by desperate relatives who are able and willing to pay lakhs of rupees to secure their release, and have left the camps. This exposes so-called ‘screening’ for what it is: a cover …
September 16, 2009 at 7:00 am · Categories: Batticaloa, Disaster Management, Environment | by A Little Batti
The following is an except from a letter I wrote about the recent Tsunami Early Warning Test last week. I hope the readers of Groundviews find it interesting. I have to preface this by saying I am a Westerner, one of the few, living in Batticaloa, where I have been since shortly after the 2004 tsunami.
The excerpt:
The second exciting and panic-inducing event was the botched Tsunami Early Warning Test last Thursday, the 10th. The papers had announced that the new warning towers would be tested on the 19th, so you can see the first problem. Second, no one I talked to knew where these towers were. Turns out that there are three in the District: one in Kallady, about a …
August 15, 2009 at 8:16 pm · Categories: Disaster Management, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict, Post-War, Vavuniya | by Groundviews
[gallery link="file"]
These are the first images of the flooding in Menik Camp, where over 260,000 IDPs are interned.
Groundviews was first to break the news on Friday that flooding on account of torrential rain was severely affecting thousands of IDPs, particularly in Zones 3 and 4 of Menik Camp.
While heavy rain has stopped, intermittent showers are continuing, exacerbating the hellish camp conditions as flagged by updates from Vidura today. Severe hardships and challenges on the ground range from toilets that are overflowing to shelters that are under water and a lack of dry firewood for cooking. Vidura, who is witness to the conditions on the ground, goes on to categorically note that the zones cannot survive the monsoon, even …
August 14, 2009 at 11:02 pm · Categories: Disaster Management, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict, Post-War, Vavuniya | by Groundviews
Reports received by Groundviews this evening indicate that torrential rains in Vavuniya throughout the day have severely affected IDPs interned in Menik Camp, particularly in Zone 3 and Zone 4. Other unconfirmed reports put the number of those affected by the rains at 15,000 at the time of writing.
As early as May this year, serious concerns of possible flooding due to poor drainage in Zone 4 of Menik Camp were clearly voiced by humanitarian agencies. There concerns were flagged again in the UN OCHA update on 31 July 2009, available here.
Vidura, who has written in to Groundviews previously, offers one perspective of the situation on the ground at the moment through Twitter. See www.twitter.com/apelankawe for updates.
Salient tweets …
August 12, 2009 at 7:00 am · Categories: Disaster Management, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict, Post-War, Vavuniya | by Laksundara
It will not be long before areas in the north and east will be declared Industrial Zones or BOI areas, opening up opportunities for development. But wait; business is already going on there at full swing! The world’s best Humanitarian niche markets are now available in Sri Lanka and people are rushing in to supply the demand. Of course business could be done both ethically and otherwise. So let us take up the current humanitarian business market.
However before I start, one must note the emails and the stories which are also rampant in the society today generalizing and criticizing humanitarian operations. While most of these stories are flights of fancy, this article is not meant to add fuel to that …
July 22, 2009 at 2:43 am · Categories: Disaster Management, Foreign Relations, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Nikini Jayatunga
“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.”
(Rudyard Kipling, Barrack-room ballads, 1892)
Through a fortuitous twist of fate at the end of May I had the opportunity to be a witness to an event of considerable global importance; the Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka. The outcome of this meeting has sparked substantial controversy, and has been extensively covered in both local and international press, which I have been following with great interest.
Please permit me at the outset to elaborate upon my personal situation as this may help to explain my position on this subject.
I am a dual citizen of both Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom, a child of …
March 2, 2009 at 5:51 am · Categories: Disaster Management, IDPs and Refugees, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict | by Kumar David
Dear Sanjana,
I am responding to Michael Roberts’ two articles Dilemmas at wars end: Hard realities (article-A) and Dilemmas at wars end: Clarifications and counter offensive (article-B) published on Groundviews, and since about half of article-B was devoted to the counter offensive aimed at Lionel Bopage and me, I do hope you will give this response equal prominence. The counter offensive B was to thwart a presumed offensive from Bopage and me, and in so far as I was involved the ‘offensive’ (pun intended) was a very brief comment which I posted on Groundviews. In the comment I asserted that Roberts, on balance, had strayed beyond scholarship and placed himself at the service of chauvinism and behaved like an …
February 17, 2009 at 7:00 am · Categories: Colombo, Disaster Management, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict | by Laksundara
“You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead people’s bones and every kind of impurity.”
The disturbances in Sri Lanka are slowly drawing to an end. I call it disturbances as many times we have heard the authorities say that it is not a war. But if it is not war, then it must be treated under the law. But then again it is a problem of terrorism, and the word terrorism itself is now played in a fast and loose manner. This prevents any application of law, international or local upon it.
At a time when to speak for or against these disturbances is to be done with great fear and trembling, …
December 23, 2008 at 11:17 am · Categories: Colombo, Disaster Management, Poetry | by Yichaelle Devendra
I have never felt the
same about blue frothy waters and
ebb and tide
since learning how
your mild self could turn
and gush
hiss and spit
washing out her tomorrows, her
child, her home
and
Blue shimmering water is
now a memory of
a blue baby shirt,
the white sari that blows in the wind
as she feeds the crows and dogs on the
beach in their memory is the
colour of white sea foam…
The breeze that beguiles gulls and
suspends them in mid air is now the
a silence
of sadness that
cannot be stilled.
January 21, 2008 at 10:37 pm · Categories: Disaster Management | by Sanjana Hattotuwa
On the loose since 12th May 2007, I spotted this Iranian barge banging against the Galle Fort ramparts just opposite the Fort Dew guest-house, adjacent to the Buddhist Temple, over the weekend. Clearly, the thing keeps shifting with the tide since it’s moved on from where is was spotted last year.
Cerno also has a picture of it here.
In a recent meeting with the President of Sri Lanka, Iran’s minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Dr.Daawood Danesh Jafarji has assured Sri Lanka of its continued support in the development of the island’s economic social and cultural activities.
One wonders if the destruction of Sri Lanka’s cultural heritage by Iranian property was …
January 17, 2008 at 9:46 pm · Categories: Colombo, Disaster Management | by The Under Dog
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