Roadtrip: Part 2 East Coast
We then traveled to Arugum Bay which used to be a trending surfing town however it was devastated by the Tsunami (1000s killed) and little has been rebuild. The road is still washed out and there is only a temporary bridge in place. There were many temporary housing camps and many NGOs about. Although Aragum Bay is a very beautiful place, the whole city seemed depressed. We hardly saw any women in the community and I wondered if many of them had been killed (more women than men died in the Tsunami). There are many Muslim people leaving in this community so perhaps the women did not have a strong public role in this town???
I talked to many people along the way about the problems in relation to rebuilding and distributing aid. (We hear that, in comparison, Thailand is completely rebuilt). One concern is regarding the SL government. For example, we heard that an NGO offered to rebuild the road to Argum Bay however the SL government declined the offer saying that they would rebuild the road however it has been 11 months and still no road. There are also stories of Tsunami donations ending up in politicians bank accounts. People also say that the aid is not getting to the right people. For example, we heard that all the fishing boats that we saw at Argum Bay (about 150) are just 25% of the boats originally donated to the community. Many people however how were given boats were not fishermen (or perhaps not from this community). They took the boats and motors and sold them. We also heard story about a Canadian doctor who brought medicine to SL and gave it to a local doctor to distribute. The doctor sold the medicine and bought a house in Colombo. One man said that it is impossible to get aid to the people who really need and has given up trying. Some people believe that some residents do not want to leave the refugee camps because their basic needs are met in the camps. When you see the camps, it is hard to imagine that anyone would want to live there but I guess there are also people who become dependent and institutionalized and want to stay in jail.
I talked to many people along the way about the problems in relation to rebuilding and distributing aid. (We hear that, in comparison, Thailand is completely rebuilt). One concern is regarding the SL government. For example, we heard that an NGO offered to rebuild the road to Argum Bay however the SL government declined the offer saying that they would rebuild the road however it has been 11 months and still no road. There are also stories of Tsunami donations ending up in politicians bank accounts. People also say that the aid is not getting to the right people. For example, we heard that all the fishing boats that we saw at Argum Bay (about 150) are just 25% of the boats originally donated to the community. Many people however how were given boats were not fishermen (or perhaps not from this community). They took the boats and motors and sold them. We also heard story about a Canadian doctor who brought medicine to SL and gave it to a local doctor to distribute. The doctor sold the medicine and bought a house in Colombo. One man said that it is impossible to get aid to the people who really need and has given up trying. Some people believe that some residents do not want to leave the refugee camps because their basic needs are met in the camps. When you see the camps, it is hard to imagine that anyone would want to live there but I guess there are also people who become dependent and institutionalized and want to stay in jail.
posted by ~chill~ at
11:15 AM
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