Toronto-- Needed: a white knight to wrest big business elite from the throats of thousands of hardscrabble tsunami victims. apply to the United Nations and European Union for the job.
Small-scale fishers and farmers hardest hit by last December's tsunami in Sri Lanka are now being deluged by a man-made wave: big business.
The post-tsunami aid needed to put little people back on their feet again never got there.
It's promoting "big business" instead, social and agriculture groups from the region are warning. (Stefania Bianchi for Tourism Investigation & Monitoring Team).
More than seven long months after cataclysmic tsunami devastation, which saw at least 200,000 people killed in 13 countries, hundreds of thousands of affected people are still living in "desperate" circumstances.
In Sri Lanka, one of the hardest hit by the earthquake and tsunami, teeming numbers from the one million, local small-scale fisher folks go begging, as do legions of small-scale farmers.
Delegates from Sir Lanka and Indonesia were at European Union Brussels headquarters last week asking for EU officials to take responsibility for efficient delivery of aid.
Sarath Fernando, secretary general of Sri Lanka's Movement for National Land and agricultural Reform, a small-scale farmers' organization, says the reconstruction of his country is being used to implement government plans which have been drawn up "without consultation with civil society".
"(Reconstruction plans) do not target the most affected communities such as people working in the fisheries sector," Fernando said.
While Sri Lankan fisher folk and farmers cannot feed their families, the so-called Task Force to Rebuild the Nation (TaFREN), set up shortly after the tsunami, is dominated by a group of elite business leaders.
"There are no representatives of the affected people or of any organizations operating in the affected areas, and no academics or scientists or any professionals with experience of rebuilding after disasters," he said.
Fernando insists that tsunami rehabilitation is now being used to promote "big business" and tourism in the country. Big business is booming with aid dollars sent from around the world, and it's impervious to the needs of those who were left broke and homeless in the disaster.
People from across the world responded to the December 26 tsunami disaster with remarkable generosity, with the EU as the largest donor. approximately 10.7 euros (13 billion dollars) was pledged in aid from around the world to rebuild the lives and livelihoods of the survivors.
Unbeknownst to global donors and barely mentioned in the mainline media, poor communities are being pushed away from Sri Lankan's coastlines to make way for large hotel complexes.
Shortly after the tsunami hit, the Sri Lankan government announced that people should not rebuild their houses on the coast.
"The government is not trying to protect fisher people, but is forcing us to make way for tourism," says Fernando. "Promoting high-end tourism seems to be one of the driving forces of the TaFREN plan. This modern society includes high-end tourism, export agriculture and manufacturing and large-scale fisheries. It clearly does not include small-scale fishing, subsistence farming or community-based tourism."
It's not as if Fernando is a voice crying alone in the wind. In his plight to get tsunami aid to the people who need it most, he is joined by Herman Kumara, secretary general of the World Forum of Fisher People in Sri Lanka, Luky Djani, vice coordinator of Indonesia Corruption Watch, adli abdullah, secretary general of Panglima Laot (a fishery community organization in Indonesia) and arjun Karki, coordination of the South asia alliance for Poverty Eradication.
Even though the money has long since been sent, government bureaucracy has kept the pace of building slow while thousands of people remain homeless.
The United Nations says reconstruction work across the whole affected region could take up to five years, and may cost up to $9-billion.
Five years is an eternity to someone trying to feed his or her children with no job and no roof.
Meanwhile, the business elite is depriving the little guy in tsunami-stricken Sri Lankan and Indonesia.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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