Remembering the Tsunami victims.

  • Monday, December 26, 2005
  • 0
I am still bz..but i have forced my self to write some thing on this day...yes.. about the tsunami....

One year have passed after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and Tsunami.
Here in Maldives, close to one third of population were severely affected, with eighty-two confirmed deaths, over 1,300 injuries and around 12,000 people (7% of the population) made homeless.
People of maibaadhoo island being transported to safer places;before being taken to the temporary shelters-some of the victims are still (after one year) living in these temporary shelters.

for more pictures please visit this page.and this page.and this page and this page.

After one year...they are 'celebrating' that horrible,and dark day...(the most tragic event in my 19 year 'long?' life).Today the celebrations began early in the morning..with some special dua' (prayer after the morning fajr prayer).This special dua was created by dictator maumoon ; according to him,every one is supposed to participate in this 'maumunic ritual'. Anyway..after that;there was a
'minute of silence.' at 0920 ,today...(It was chosen as the time the first wave struck on 26th of december 2004.after finding many clocks and wrist watches..which showed (almost) that time...with slight differences).

I didnt takepart in todays 'celebrations'.I was with some friends enjoying a continental breakfast (it's two toasts,one fried,and two sausages,plus a black coffee.for only Mrf15/-) at north cafeteria..when it was 0920.we were talking about rastafarians,photography,cartoons and ofcourse about the tsunami.and then i went to maafannu madrasa (my pre skool..oh... the childhood memories) get the MR vaccine (coz there is an outbreak of measles and rubella in Maldives now.).
Why didnt i take part in the 'celebrations'? :first of all; these celebrations are not of any benefit to the Tsuanmi victims...it is only used to move public attention to another direction..after the ageold authoritarian regime..have to face
intense political tesions regarding fraud in the recent by-elections.The regime is wasting our money and international aid on these events.It costs a huge sum of money for today's celebrations,and the so-called tsunami monument.But where are the victims..are they remebered on this day??One year after the tragedy..many are homeless and still continue to lodge with host families, others lives in temporary shelters (which i believe are not even suitable for animals to live in)...these tents...:(.. at the camps which are at hulhumale' island -the gayom's billion dollar project(he wasted from our money) .all the families living in tents are given only one bathroom (with toilet) to use.And they are kept far away from the luxury apartment houses at hulhumale' island.Like refugees not belonging to this nation.According to Dhivehi weekly magazines; none of them are comfortable with how they are treated. Many victims (still..after one year) are not very happy about how they are treated..Living in tents they have to face difficult circumstances when it rains heavily or during the 'udha erun',..like this and this.The people of kandholhudhoo island living in hulhudhuffaaru island have faced inhumane crimes from the people of hulhudhuffaaru.They have warned the government previously that they are rivals to each other and something like this might happen.Still after these incidents where many people where hurt..and also the minority (about 740) kandholhu dhuans have attacked.Their relatives from nearby islands came and attacked the original inhabitants.(the hulhudhuffaaru natives)..in these attacks they didnt make a difference between old or young,male or female.The people were hiding in the woods..from about one day or so.now the island is supervised by the army.But still the government dont want to change the people to a safer place. This is how the people of Kaafu atoll ,Huraa island are living their life now...in these tents.

I can still remeber when i went to huraa just after 3 or 4 days...with a group of volunteers (friends)...after 3 days..they didnt get any help from the government..we went there ..helped them (specially the old..and people who dont have relatives) bringing down the houses which were damaged,cleaning the mess made by the waves..
something like this...
Could u sleep comfortably when the house next door is something like this?? so we needed to bring em down and make the neighbours safe until help comes.

i wll post some pics of it later (coz it was an emergency trip, i forgot about the camera..so i have to get em from a friend.)...after about some 5 days we came back..the people of the island were asking us to stay..but we have no choice..we have to work 24X7 if we want to survive in these so-called paradise islands where we get less (no labour rights..but have to work very hard to survive) and have to spend more on basic needs and others.On the second day of our trip ..a visiting official from the international red cross came ..to our camp..and met us.. he was surprised that the people of huraa are treated this way despite being one of the worst hit Islands and one of the nearest island to the capital.There were people living in houses with the roof almost coming down..there were only one well which people can use to drink water( we cleaned almost all the wells before we left)...every one complained about the foods supplied to them (it was the same in many other islands.)....on our last day in the island..we saw two NSS (army) guys going around the island.. there were no one before that..but about two days before that we saw the president gayoms daughter and many 'royal', capitalist class, elites going around photographing the scenes.How the hell they managed to spend money on the photography trip (in highspeed launches) of the 'princess' but cannot send the rescue and army teams to this island??...And also we witnessed many tricks from the dirty politicians on our trip..some politicians campaigning for elections..wrote their names on the aids provided by the concerned local citizens of Madlives and other nations.And the Island Chief of huraa, announced that there were a team of volunteers sent by the youth ministry..(he was reffereing to us)..but we were not related to any ministry or government body...we only used wheelbarrows, and shovels which we borrowed from the youth ministry.And on the same day we left ..the island chief announced from the loudspeakers...'we have decided to give poulet, pillow, (bottle of) water -one piece to each house'..is this some kinda joke???!!!...

And about this day being marked as the 'Unity Day'.Its just another trick of the dictator gayom.He is trying to make the most of this 'golden opportunity'...where every one goes hyper-emotional.He is trying to bring forward the nationalist propaganda..and picture himself as the leader...who will protect this 'unity'..'which he describes is threatened by 'some,very few people'..(reffering to the opposition MDP) or describes that as the unity 'which have been among maldivians since the begining'...

but i wouldnt call..what we witnessed on the 26th of december 2004...national unity..or Islamic brotherly love or unity..no..its mere humanity..no one can wait and see humans suffering like that...no matter what country or what religion they belong to...Thats why the Maldivians watched live scenes of Iraq war,Srebrenica massacre (we donatedd for em..but the corrupt government swallowed all the money) and the recent hurricane katrina in America..we are concerned..because we are humane...
it would be better this day is marked as the national day of humanity or 'insaaniyyathu kamunge dhuvas'.It would be better if we rembered the victims rather than remebering the waves or how the Maldivians responded to the catastrophe.Lets make the lives of the victims better ..rather than joining the gayoms propaganda celebrations and showing off.stuff...lets include them in our private prayers.
God will surely hear and listen to us; even if we dont use a microphone..
Lets remember the dead among the victims...but not forget those still alive,suffering under a brutal dictator.If we all want them to live a better life; we need act now.Not just wait and think of em only for one minute...