Posted on 01/01/2005 8:35:11 PM PST by Critical Bill
It's five kilometres of hell, and it's right here at Nagapattinam. Kaviarsi studies - make that studied - in the sixth standard. Her schoolbooks lie a short distance away, and besides them lies a doll. The girl herself lies on a makeshift pyre on what used to be her home, her face totally blackened, her neck twisted upwards, the skin peeling off her legs like torn stockings. There is a large empty container of Pepsi lying just besides her, and four other bodies. And besides the pyre, towards the sunset, are five long kilometers of slushy wasteland strewn with dead bodies.
It wasn't like this five days ago. We - me and two companions - are at a part of Nagapattinam called Akkarakadai, where a prosperous fishing community lived. This five-kilometre-long stretch of land was filled with houses, and had at its heart a bustling Sunday marketplace. The people here were well off - some of them had expensive fishing launches costing many lakhs of rupees. Then the tsunami came.
It took us half-an-hour to traverse the half-kilometre or so until we reached him. The ground was like quicksand in parts, and our shoes would sink in with each step and resist our attempts to lift our feet again. We came across dead bodies on the way: a young girl in a basket, her limbs akimbo, and her face, with some dried blood on it, contorted in an expression that even Damien Hirst would have found too macabre. Three feet away from her lay a woman, with a frozen look of horror on her face, etched into an eerie permanence.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.rediff.com ...
So sad, these people need help not hype.
This is what Kofi and his cohorts will be up to shortly.
Instead of surveying the area, why aren't they helping to gather the bodies for burial, cremation, or whatever so that they can be put to rest in dignity? Also, there is the disease situation to think about.
There is a lot of work that needs to be done. No one should just be walking around surveying the situation. Anyone coming in should have an armful of supplies.
"workers had complained that the locals in Nagapattinam had refused to help out in clearing the bodies,"
These people need to help themselves a bit. This is India, where the government said "No Thanks" to offers of international aid.
Yep.
In this situation, we need at least 10 C-17 aircraft that we do not have.
Okay. I'm ready to say it: the death toll is so high because of certain cultural issues and local attitude. If this had struck California, the death toll would be 1% of what it is here. I'm sorry if this is racist. They are obviously not the same as we are. Simple as that.
With attitudes like that, no amount of aid will do any good.
Why are they so indifferent? There was an earlier thread about cops and military people just sitting around smoking cigarettes and staring at the devastation. Someone was excusing them, saying they were "in shock". Is that what their cops and soldiers do in a disaster, go into shock?
Something's wrong there... or maybe I'm just not "Culturally Sensitive" enough (dep't.).
I can see you would not last long at the UN. Too much common sense.
There would be about 3 million Red Staters there within one day helping out !
You are right. As Hindu's, they don't value life as we do. In their view, anyone who dies will just reincarnate, and they will be back soon.
Including the Red-staters inside California!
American didn't become the world's only superpower because we won some lottery. From what I've seen everywhere else, I think we're just about the most generous people on the face of the Earth.
Reminds me of Logan' Run.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.