Eutrusca
25-12-2005, 14:21
In this season of hope, I wanted to share with you some of the results which sprang from the terrible Souteast Asian tsunami in 2004. Even in tragedy hope can be found.
"In the Indonesian province of Aceh ... Muharram Idris, a former rebel commander who watched as the sea swallowed his village and family, now scoots around on a red motorcycle, tending to the business of peace. The ethnic separatist guerrillas he once led have turned in their weapons and are retooling themselves as a political party. In Aceh, the tsunami and aid helped quiet a 30-year-old civil war.
"The tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004, was, of course, an extraordinary calamity. Apart from the stunning death toll, it displaced close to two million people, razed entire villages, submerged others forever, ruined some 2,900 schools, sundered families. The response was also extraordinary. The United Nations, usually accustomed to ranging across the world's rich countries with a begging bowl in hand to deal with emergencies, met its $977 million appeal within a month. Private aid groups roped in record donations. Doctors Without Borders raised so much that it eventually diverted some of the money to other, far more neglected emergencies, namely a food crisis in West Africa and the earthquake in Pakistan."
"All told, the tsunami generated a record $13.6 billion in aid pledges, according to the United Nations. Just as rare, donor countries kept their promises. The United Nations Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery says 75 percent of the $10.5 billion pledged for reconstruction of tsunami-affected countries has been secured; by comparison, independent studies have found that no more than 10 percent of aid pledges were honored after the 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran."
"In the Indonesian province of Aceh ... Muharram Idris, a former rebel commander who watched as the sea swallowed his village and family, now scoots around on a red motorcycle, tending to the business of peace. The ethnic separatist guerrillas he once led have turned in their weapons and are retooling themselves as a political party. In Aceh, the tsunami and aid helped quiet a 30-year-old civil war.
"The tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004, was, of course, an extraordinary calamity. Apart from the stunning death toll, it displaced close to two million people, razed entire villages, submerged others forever, ruined some 2,900 schools, sundered families. The response was also extraordinary. The United Nations, usually accustomed to ranging across the world's rich countries with a begging bowl in hand to deal with emergencies, met its $977 million appeal within a month. Private aid groups roped in record donations. Doctors Without Borders raised so much that it eventually diverted some of the money to other, far more neglected emergencies, namely a food crisis in West Africa and the earthquake in Pakistan."
"All told, the tsunami generated a record $13.6 billion in aid pledges, according to the United Nations. Just as rare, donor countries kept their promises. The United Nations Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery says 75 percent of the $10.5 billion pledged for reconstruction of tsunami-affected countries has been secured; by comparison, independent studies have found that no more than 10 percent of aid pledges were honored after the 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran."