February, 2005

Tsunami Reflection - We Are One Humanity

Rose Wu

On Dec. 26, the world became one human family. The earthquake-induced tsunami on that day in South and Southeast Asia united humanity in grief and compassion. Stories of grief, of kindness, of heroism, have been in abundance since then. Natural disasters are merciless and heartless, but people have shown love and empathy for those affected by this historic tsunami tragedy, reminding us again of our common humanity.

The tsunami forced all of us though to acknowledge the fragility of life, of how quickly our security can become insecurity and helplessness regardless of our ethnicity, our nationality, our class, our gender, our age; for to the tsunami, these distinctions were irrelevant. Everyone before the wall of water was the same, just as we are all the same in the eyes of God.

We have been taught another painful lesson as well by the Dec. 26 tsunami: our efforts to be in control, to be the masters over nature, is a humbling myth built on our false assumptions of superiority. Life is not in our hands. In our urbanised, scientific and technological 21st century, the tsunami showed us how disconnected we are from nature. The proportion of some indigenous people and fisherfolk who survived was higher than other populations whose relationship with nature is less entwined as the indigenous people and fisherfolk recognised nature's warning signs. People were saved too by the instincts of animals, such as a woman carrying two children who followed a snake to safety. Science and technology have produced many achievements over the years, but we must also acknowledge that there are other forms of wisdom which have value for the development of humanity.

The tsunami also brought the people of Hong Kong much closer to their Asian sisters and brothers. People from Hong Kong enjoying their Christmas holiday felt the compassion of local people in Thailand, Sri Lanka and other devastated countries who helped save their lives and find their family members even though they themselves were at the same time dealing with their own loss.

The generosity of Hong Kong's people also flowed the other way to those who had lost everything. Ten days after the disaster private donations had reached HK$400 million (US$51.3 million), making Hong Kong's per capita giving of HK$55, or more than US$7 per person, the highest in the world. The response came from some unanticipated quarters as more than 760 prisoners in Stanley Prison donated more than HK$140,000 (US$17,949) and an unemployed woman gave HK$1,500 (US$192).

Others in Hong Kong went to the devastated areas as volunteers to help in any way that they could. One Hong Kong woman on vacation in Sri Lanka, for example, was overwhelmed with gratitude by the help she received from people in a Sri Lankan village during the disaster. She returned to Hong Kong, collected funds and went back to the village with relief supplies. Meanwhile, one airline pilot changed his holiday plans, spending his two-week vacation in Sri Lanka helping people there instead of travelling to Canada.

In the midst of so much mourning, the suffering has brought people together and created solidarity. One only wonders why humanity needs a disaster of such proportions to break the barriers that divide us so that we can relate to each other with the love that should be our daily response to each other. The suffering though is so sacred that we are forced to confront the divine, who is beyond our understanding but yet who draws us back to the very basic meaning of human existence—brotherhood and sisterhood, caring and the will to survive.

As the people of South and Southeast Asia who survived the tsunami wrestle with meeting their most immediate and basic needs, the tragic devastation of Dec. 26 has created the need for a new beginning, but what will that new beginning be? Will the global development model of the past characterised by dependency, exploitation, environmental degradation and a wide wealth gap once again be imposed on them? Will the people of South and Southeast Asia who have lost everything play any role in their rehabilitation and the rebuilding of their communities? Will the world merely witness the resurrection of an old development model in the years ahead, or will the people themselves experience the birth of a new reality in which they are at the centre of decision making instead of at the margins?

With billions of U.S. dollars in governmental aid already pledged, it is highly likely that the answers to these questions will favour the old over the new, for those giving most of the aid and administering it—the international and national political and economic powers-that-be—are disciples of the old neo-liberal development model.

In the midst of the current devastation, it is difficult to remember that most of the victims were poor before the tsunami struck; the old development model had only produced poverty for their lives. Thus, the victims of the tsunami must be given the opportunity to participate in the development decision-making process if they do not want poverty to also be their future. The tsunami has painfully created new possibilities. In their suffering, the people have paid the price for a better future that they should determine.