26th of december
...2004 and i woke up late that morning. the previous day being christmas, it had, as usual, been pretty hectic with family gatherings and people dropping in for the "season". switched on the bbc news at 10 a m and caught a ticker flash which said 60 odd people had died due to floods in southern sri lanka. floods? it was a bright blue sky morning in colombo. a couple of hours earlier my sis had tried to wake me up to listen to an unusual cacophony from flocks of birds in the garden. a minute later the figure on the screen jumped to 150 dead. i turned to my sis and said "something's wrong."
for an old cynic like me, the response from the international community and the sri lankan diasporas to the effect of the tsunami was amazing and overwhelming . same goes for individual sri lankans and the private sector. i was involved as a part of the response from the company i work for and subsequently in an individual capacity. so were some of you. one cannot begin to describe the scale of the devastation and tragedy. and yet, for a brief moment in time, sri lanka ( as we were in 1996) was united as a country in grief and a desire to reach out and heal. that moment and opportunity, passed.
365 days on and the tragedy continues. official response was initially very good but significant parts of the bigger picture are still missing. the missed opportunity to unite sri lanka has deteriorated into what is likely to be war again in northern and eastern sri lanka. i an told that trinco is like a town under siege. however, there is still a lot that an individual can do and not necessarily as a group. and, look to people in those areas which are not that easily accessible from colombo. it does not take that much to make a difference. please do so.
for an old cynic like me, the response from the international community and the sri lankan diasporas to the effect of the tsunami was amazing and overwhelming . same goes for individual sri lankans and the private sector. i was involved as a part of the response from the company i work for and subsequently in an individual capacity. so were some of you. one cannot begin to describe the scale of the devastation and tragedy. and yet, for a brief moment in time, sri lanka ( as we were in 1996) was united as a country in grief and a desire to reach out and heal. that moment and opportunity, passed.
365 days on and the tragedy continues. official response was initially very good but significant parts of the bigger picture are still missing. the missed opportunity to unite sri lanka has deteriorated into what is likely to be war again in northern and eastern sri lanka. i an told that trinco is like a town under siege. however, there is still a lot that an individual can do and not necessarily as a group. and, look to people in those areas which are not that easily accessible from colombo. it does not take that much to make a difference. please do so.
our scheme to sponsor two kids in trincomalee will commence in the new year. some of you have already sent in handsome initial contributions ( and be warned that i shall be asking for more) which is enough to launch the scheme details of which shall be circulated on e mail shortly. the colombo chamber of commerce has requested people to observe two minutes silence at 9.30 AM on the 26th and to hoist a white flag. but we need to do more.
posted by the scribe at 11:57 AM
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