Tsunami: Two Years After the Big Wave
Wow, two years already? We remember that Boxing Day well. Jan was living in Sasimum village, about 90 km west of Bangkok, as Project Supervisor for his Canada World Youth exchange. Cindy was visiting. When the earthquake struck we didn't feel it since we were on a motorcycle doing a little "site seeing" (such as there were sites to see). A little later, we pulled up to a host family's house where a group of participants were gathered around a TV. The news was all in Thai and at that point seemed to be about a big earthquake in Indonesia. As the day passed, the magnitude of what had happened started to unfold.
Cindy went down to the devastated areas a couple of times during that period to write stories for the Epoch Times, her first stories actually (1 and 2):
January 27, 2005. Somporn Keoykaew's house - but not his boat -Baan Nam Khem fishing village, Phang Nga, just north of the resort area of Phuket.
Strangely enough, there was just an article in The Nation about this very house. Apparently the Ministry of Culture spent a fortune buying the boat from its original owner, paying to restore it, and giving Somporn a bit of rent money but now what?
Fishermen in the same village on the same day.When Cindy met them, they were spending their days listlessly poking through the rubble looking for anything still worth salvaging. According to the article above however, "the community is recovering and there are few remaining visible signs of the tragedy. New houses have been constructed to replace damaged ones..." Good news.
Looking through the Thai press today, however, 'good news' was not the dominant feature. The tone of the Bangkok Post was just plain sad - deep loss, memorials, bonds of shard tragedy. For example:
"Supit Thongtae, 48, blinked to force back the tears as he talked about his wife and 18-year-old daughter who died when the tsunami struck Ban Nam Khem in Takua Pa district in 2004.
..."He still goes out at night to the tree in the back yard where he found the body of his wife, and often stays overnight there," said his brother Wimol.
Looking through the Thai press today, however, 'good news' was not the dominant feature. The tone of the Bangkok Post was just plain sad - deep loss, memorials, bonds of shard tragedy. For example:
"Supit Thongtae, 48, blinked to force back the tears as he talked about his wife and 18-year-old daughter who died when the tsunami struck Ban Nam Khem in Takua Pa district in 2004.
..."He still goes out at night to the tree in the back yard where he found the body of his wife, and often stays overnight there," said his brother Wimol.
The Nation, known for being fiercely anti-the-now-deposed-Thaksin government, mostly ran stories about corruption or ineptitude.
Where did our tsunami cash go?
Western countries send complaint to police after loss of money donated to identify victims
Tsunami aid: why didn't they listen?
Flattened by the giant waves of December 26 two years ago, Ban Talay Nok now has all it needs - tsunami warning tower, school and public health centre.
The story goes on to talk about a Tsunami warning tower that still doesn't work, a brand new public health care centre that no one will use (including staff) since it's on the beach where the old one was and no one dares to go there, and a school still under construction that's 5 times bigger than it needs to be."I don't know why they give us facilities that seem useless or defective," said Rewut Harnjitr, the village headman.
Another story - Tsunami memorials are a blight on the landscape - criticizes plans for big memorials as overkill.
Perhaps the Tsunami will never be seen as a good news story.
Where did our tsunami cash go?
Western countries send complaint to police after loss of money donated to identify victims
Tsunami aid: why didn't they listen?
Flattened by the giant waves of December 26 two years ago, Ban Talay Nok now has all it needs - tsunami warning tower, school and public health centre.
The story goes on to talk about a Tsunami warning tower that still doesn't work, a brand new public health care centre that no one will use (including staff) since it's on the beach where the old one was and no one dares to go there, and a school still under construction that's 5 times bigger than it needs to be."I don't know why they give us facilities that seem useless or defective," said Rewut Harnjitr, the village headman.
Another story - Tsunami memorials are a blight on the landscape - criticizes plans for big memorials as overkill.
Perhaps the Tsunami will never be seen as a good news story.
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on Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 1:42 p.m..
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