Dear Ben ,

Dear Philip and participants,

Lfe is cheap in the eyes of the people who are
assigned the task of disaster management. In India
which provides the scientic brain for USA, three hours
elapsed and no warning could be iddued which would
have helped thousands of lives. To cover it up a false
warning was givenwhich obstructed relief work and it
was a cruel joke. The Development Commissioner of
Andamans was holidaying in Delhi days after the
catastrophe Are they noty accountable to the
taxpayers. UNISDR gives SAKASAWA awards to such
bureacrats.
The indigenous knowledge of people living with
disasters should worked on for providing warnings,
educatin and long term measures.
Prof Durgadas Mukhopadhyay






from camp Kanyakumari, Tamilnadu,India








--- Ben Wisner <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I am grateful to Ilan, David, and James for the
> resources they have
> provided and their insights.  To be sure, there are
> a lot of questions
> one has to ask about early warning.  From what I've
> been able to piece
> together, various authorities did, in fact, receive
> partial data and
> various forms of warning.  These countries are not
> integrated into the
> tsunami warning system that has been developed since
> 1965 for the
> Pacific basin.  However, there are press reports
> (news papers in Sweden
> and UK) that the Thai authorities received some data
> suggesting the
> possibility of a tsunami but for some reason did not
> issue a warning.
> These anecdotal accounts will have to be confirmed,
> of course.  My point
> is that even if the high end technology and
> communications for tsunami
> warning were made available in all the potentially
> affected ocean
> basins, there will still be the question of how the
> data gets
> interpreted and communicated, and, of course, how it
> is received and
> understood and acted upon (or not) at the local
> level.
>
> The discourse on warning so far in various forums
> has focused on
> technology and geophysical technicalities --
> satellites and ocean tide
> measuring buoys, earthquake depths, text messaging
> of warning to
> localities where many people have cell phones, etc.
> Such discussion is
> important, but we also need to consider this whole
> process from the
> bottom up as well.  Political and economic
> marginalization may be
> polarizing the large number of human beings who live
> -- in increasing
> numbers -- in coastal zones.  The impoverished
> villagers who continue to
> move to tourist centers and export enclaves in
> coastal areas may feel
> they have good reasons for not trusting authorities
> and, if they are
> illegal immigrants such as the Burmese workers in
> coastal Thailand, good
> reasons for avoiding authorities.  At the extreme,
> political marginality
> takes the form of violent conflict and insurgency as
> on the island of
> Aceh or simmering civil conflict as in coastal
> Somalia.  Under such
> circumstances, necessary trust between warning-giver
> and recipient may
> not exist.
>
> Economic marginality may mean that an increasing
> proportion of people
> who work for minimal wages in the tourist sectors or
> export
> manufacturing industries may not be able to afford
> batteries for their
> radios or pre-paid cards for their cell phone --
> even if they own such
> an appliance.  They may have few options if they
> learn of a evacuation
> order.  They may prefer not to believe it in order
> to stay and protect
> their meagre possessions.  A fisherman whose
> livelihood is dependent on
> his boat may behave the same way.
>
> So, in addition to discussion of the hard ware and
> data sides of early
> warning, we have to concern ourselves with conflict
> management and
> peace-making and with raising incomes among the
> masses who inhabit many
> of these dangerous coastal regions.  Micro-insurance
> for tools, sewing
> machines, and fishing boats, etc. might go a long
> way to provide peace
> of mind to people who might not otherwise chose to
> evacuate.
>
> These and other aspects of the tsunami are presently
> under discussion in
> an International Student Forum on the WCDR I've been
> administering since
> 2 December.  It will continue through February as a
> way of giving
> students and others a voice in the Kobe conference.
> I invite you all to
> visit the forum and to participate (as it is
> certainly not only for
> students): http://132.162.64.84/forum/ or by
> clicking on a link from the
> RADIX website
> (online.northumbria.ac.uk/geography_research/radix
> ).
>
> BEN
>
> Dr. Ben Wisner ([log in to unmask] )
>
> David Crichton wrote:
>
> > Ilan's email raises some excellent points. He asks
> if a warning system
> > would be warranted for the Atlantic Ocean?  The
> answer is definitely
> > "yes".  Professor Bill McGuire of the Benfield
> Hazard Research Centre
> > has been arguing for this for some years, in the
> light of the
> > imminent, in geological terms, collapse of the La
> Palma volcano in the
> > Canaries.  He points out that a future eruption
> could result in
> > tsunamis more than 300 feet high, travelling at
> over 500 mph and still
> > at least 60 feet high by the time they hit the
> east coast of the
> > USA.Ilan is right to point out the hazards from
> the Storegga slide in
> > the North Sea - the last time it slipped, the
> trunami which hit the
> > East coast of the UK left sea shells 50 m above
> sea level and five
> > miles inland.  The next slide is again
> geologically imminent
> > (especially perhaps as the Norwegians are
> currently "poking it with
> > big sticks" as part of their oil exploration
> programme.)As far as
> > warning systems are concerned, will the relevant
> governments or public
> > pay any attention to warnings issued?  A good
> example was the classic
> > case of the city of Grafton in Australia.  In
> March 2001, the citizens
> > were ordered to evacuate due to the flood hazard,
> but instead most
> > stayed put or went down to the river to watch the
> water rising. In the
> > UK press today there is a report of how the
> Pacific Tsunami Warning
> > Centre in Hawaii tried desperately to warn
> governments in SE Asia, but
> > because it was Christmas the people they needed
> just were not in their
> > offices. Regards, David From Professor David
> Crichton, 1 Quarryknowe
> > Crescent, Inchture, PH14 9RH Scotland
> > Tel. +44 (0)1828 686493
> > If you have received this in error, please let me
> know.
> > I use the latest firewall and virus checking
> software, but you should
> > not rely on this, or on any advice contained in
> this email or its
> > attachments.
> >
> >      ----- Original Message -----
> >      From:Ilan Kelman
> >      To: [log in to unmask]
> >      Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 9:47 AM
> >      Subject: Re: What went wrong with Early
> Warning?
> >       We should not only analyse what went wrong
> with early
> >      warning, but also what
> >      went wrong with many donor governments around
> the world
> >      being shockingly
> >      slow to react.  Meanwhile, we should be
> asking questions
> >      about other tsunami
> >      warning systems:
> >
> >      1. Those in the Pacific Ocean are confident
> that their
> >      system works.
> >
> >      2. The Caribbean Sea has a plan
> >
>
http://www.cdera.org/cunews/publish/article_783.shtml
> but
> >      "The availability
> >      of funding will determine how quickly such a
> system can be
> >      implemented".
> >      The cost would apparently be US$2.426 million
> >
>
http://news.caribseek.com/Barbados/article_7920.shtml
>
=== message truncated ===




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