By: Raj Shekhar
February 13, 2005
(The author is a business-man living in Canada since 1977: I come from a large family of professionals where we discuss all kinds of global issues and encourage the youngsters in the family to have an open mind to develop progressive thoughts)

The word tsunami of Japanese origin has surely taken a place in universal language meaning disaster. The current difficult phase in our time and our response will be probably 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 200,000 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 surge of pledges in response to this epic tragedy & disaster has surpassed any relief effort; with amazing acts of generosity of individuals and world leaders showing a degree of competitiveness-“my donation is bigger than yours” kind of race to top one another by offering the biggest packages. Indeed, the admirable torrent of pledges, sympathy and desire to do something to defeat this tsunami is a testimony to human solidarity. Empathy for the victims was doubtless increased by the power of today’s global media as scenes of devastation were immediately beamed in to the family rooms of the world during Christmas holidays. A massive aid soared over $5 Billon Dollars as of today and still increasing day by day. Contributions include not only the well-publicized responses from rich nations, but also less–known donations from countries themselves burdened with 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 which ranked 171 on the Human Development Index(2004) donates 100,000 dollars to this relief fund; watching school kids on the streets of Ahmedabad in India, 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 Andman & 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. One could 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 the 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 ironically more or less the same number of lives in South Asia so far, and when it will end; nobody can predict. The outpouring of media and public compassion for the victims of Asian tsunami is inspiring while the near total indifference to the suffering of Iraqi civilians under American and British attack is even more stunning as they are responsible for the bringing a comparable tsunami disaster to a single country-Iraq. While American government has so far pledged $350 million dollars and British Government pledged$ 96 million dollars for the Asian tsunami relief funds, it is worth noticing that US Govt. spent close to $200 billion dollars and in addition UK Government spent $12 billion dollars alone in this futile war in Iraq!

Ironically few weeks back, the British Prime Minister Blair told reporters in London: "The tragedy of the tsunami was through the force of nature. The tragedy of Africa is through the failure of man". One should remind him that this war is also man made.

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 we can smell the beautiful flowers in the spring, touch & 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? It seems as if it is forgotten and neglected or nobody knows how to stop this prolonging war. Frankly, I don’t think I can do any thing to stop this. Do you? This is a Bad tsunami 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 and polio in Africa alone kill 40 times than other tsunamis every year, taking no fewer than 6 million lives. British Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledging the serious situation in Africa put it into perspective few days back, saying, "There is the equivalent of a man-made, preventable tsunami every week in Africa.``

While the tsunami aid pledge in Asia continues to mount over $5 Billion dollars, United Nations scramble for the $3 Billion dollars a year in order to fight these killer diseases only in Africa. This is the tsunami of much greater proportions created by man made negligence, ignorance and greed raising momentous questions: Can the response to the tsunami be carried over to even more devastating crisis that are less photogenic, such as AIDS, other fatal disease, conflict, refugee crisis, hunger and poverty? Who can justify the compassion and empathy of the world’s population for being so selective? No doubt this needs much greater pledges, resources and quick action to combat this Ugly tsunami in Africa.

Raj Shekhar