My reading of RADIX and NatHazDis messages suggests we are all coping, in
our own ways, with our own grief for victims, survivors - and for our past
projects and applications. I am myself - for people and places I have known
and worked with but I am pleased to have been triggered by Philip's
challenge to his students. It has long been my view that "massive disasters
comprise myriad small ones". Ever-increasing numbers of deaths are an
avaricious media construct for our consumption as observers - as outsiders,
not insiders. If I am a victim it is of little concern to me how many other
victims there are or how many other countries are affected. I wish Coventry
students well as they grapple with issues of this unprecedented catastrophe
and would be interested to know the outcomes of their deliberations.

I am interested too in Tarek's "the importance of geography" to which there
has been little response so far; meaning in this case the inclusion of
natural warnings for natural hazards in geography teaching everywhere.
There are indications that there was some recognition of natural precursors
to the wave - of foaming sea rapidly receding from beaches. Geographic
knowledge generally, it is reported, is on the decline so there is some
redirection called for. Geographic information on islands would be useful
now to aid some organisers. Someone from Oxfam recently was referring to
"the island" of the Maldives, and differences between the north side and
the south side of "the island". The Maldives is an archipelago of two
thousand islands. Further, there are many different kinds of islands;
mountainous, raised, and flat atolls - some archipelagoes comprise mixes of
all three. There is little point, in some places therefore, of opportunity,
created by warnings, to run to high ground in the face of a ten metre high
wave (at Indonesia). Experience in Bangladesh (for once a least-affected
country - as far as we know) indicates that people will not leave their
property for fear of squatters and looters (the surge, but not a wave, in
1991 reached "more than 9 metres"). Cyclone shelters are being built in
Bangladesh; are tsunami-resistant towers now the answer in other places ?

If information on previous disasters is of interest, yes "some of these
coasts" do experience cyclones; eg: in addition to Bangladesh, the east
coasts of India and of Sri Lanka. My field analysis of damage in Sri
Lanka's 1978 cyclone is one of the case studies in "Development in
Disaster-prone Places" (IT Publications London 1999) as are several other
island studies and informations. See also
http://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/islandvulnerability/

As reconstruction looms, "normal" disasters of tropical cyclones and
earthquakes will have to be catered for. Will it mean the replacement of
shrimp farming in place of the replanting of mangroves once displaced, and
will it mean further destruction of reefs for more masonry material in
place of timber that will now be regarded as inadequate ? Will it mean the
replacement of tourist accommodations on the beaches - serving as a magnet
to indigenous habitation that traditionally has lived inland ? History has
shown that swings in reconstruction after different disasters, one after
the other, to have been disadvantageous. It is the politics that worry me
most, however. Not only of divided kudos-hungry donors but of the region's
governments and their apparent disinterest, it would seem, in rapid
organisation of emergency assistance or reconstruction for their own people
eg: Indonesia, and India inclusive of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. How
do we ensure humanitarian assistance but ensure sovereignty ? Will these
governments be at Kobe ?

James




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