Plus

Plus

Sanjee Goonetilake meets Jerad Sibbitt-a young American who feels the pulse of tsunami survivors
A fruitful walk in search of truth
On a very humid and sunny day two months ago, I walked along the railway tracks in Devata, one of the worst slum areas in Galle. It is predominantly a Muslim area and in one family clan 97 people had died in the tsunami. This area is beyond the hundred metre zone. It was on this fateful day that I met Jerad Sibbitt, an American who was there with a cement block machine.

Like in many areas of Galle, it was not a surprise to find a foreigner doing reconstruction work. Jerad like many others had arrived in Sri Lanka to build houses bringing with him, funds he raised back in Arizona. Although our conversation was very short, I remembered Jerad each time I ran into him in town. He seemed to pop up in the most unusual places, and I found out later that walking was one of his main pastimes.

Jerad, 23 has a degree related to Recreation, Environmental Education and Management. He is also a fire fighter in national parks in the US, spending quite a lot of time in the deep wilderness where he battles forest fires. He also goes trekking for several weeks, taking young students on educational excursions in nature parks.

Since I was leaving Sri Lanka, I asked him whether he would like to teach English to some students from Ratgama. Ratgama, a village near Galle where many people earn a living making rope (kohu) had problems even before the tsunami. Some families in Ratgama earn a monthly income of less than Rs. 600. Jerad was very interested in teaching English to these young adults since they had failed their O/L English.

During our conversation we touched upon what was bothering most of us who had been talking to people in the coastal areas in the south. Jerad had come here for three months and like him many others have arrived here for short periods. We met a retired English gentleman who was here for two months and with him, he carried funds to build 250 houses. He was not the only one.

There were more than 50 people we had met during this period who had come to Sri Lanka to build houses for the tsunami affected.

Buffer zone
Unfortunately only one sad answer was given before all these people left Sri Lanka. They had not spent one cent and the 100-metre buffer zone is a big problem for reconstruction as there was no land available. This is a good example of foreign money, which was pledged for reconstruction going elsewhere.

Some foreigners told me that they had never met an administration which was so disinterested in donor-money and that they preferred to spend their money in a place like Indonesia. Helping a foreigner with reconstruction in Sri Lanka is considered almost like doing a favour.

Nowadays the 100-metre buffer zone seemed like a taboo subject to discuss, since every pundit in the island would like to label any rational discussion on the subject as pro UNP. What Jerad and other foreigners clearly see is very obvious to anyone who would go inside a tent in the coastal areas of Sri Lanka.

The so-called buffer zone which the government claims as very dangerous for the common man to live in, is keeping thousands of people in temporary housing set up by the government right now. And what is rather irrational is that in the hundred-metre buffer zone people would die and that beyond the hundred-metre buffer zone lives would not be lost. In Seenigama, the tidal waves went inland as far as 2000-metres and in Galle till Sangamitta College, Wakwella Road (more than 1500 metres). In China Gardens, Galle (1000 m from the sea), more than 17 people died in one family. And if we are discussing danger from future tidal waves, what should we do about the tourists staying in resorts?

Re-building lives
And the most tragic thing that everyone notices when speaking to the people who live in tents is their trauma. There are expensive workshops organised by policy makers about psycho-social trauma counselling but it is evident that the biggest trauma faced by the tsunami victims is the fear of the sea. And those who defend the buffer zone keep on repeating this fear to people who have suffered so much.

If the people are to be cured of their trauma, the first thing to be done is to let them re-start their lives as soon as possible. To re-start their lives, they should be allowed to rebuild where they lived instead of waiting to be shifted like cattle. If they are shifted family and sociological ties they have built for generations will break. They will not have a say as to who their neighbour will be and artificial towns will be built destroying villages that have a certain culture and habits which have withstood the test of time. These are communities, which gave each other moral support and strength, holding a civilisation that we so proudly speak of in the books of Martin Wickremesinghe. Any anthropologist could explain this to our policy makers.

And any tsunami survivor will say that they are tired of waiting in a tent which is too hot during day time and which gets wet in the monsoons. Their daughters and wives are not safe in tents and children are in no mood to study. At night when there are rumours, they run saying muhuda goda galanawa (the sea is coming ashore) several times a week. By last Tuesday they were well prepared to run, because most of the coastal inhabitants have run already at least once a week during the last three months. How long can these people wait in their tents?

According to the people who live in tents, there is a culture that they call 'tsunami mentality'. It is of those who live on aid and do not go to work because aid arrives.

It is of those who have forgotten what it is to work and of those who are depressed and not in the mood to work. The children are not interested in going to school, the teachers are not in the mood to teach and there is widespread use of kasippu and other illicit alcohol.

Social problems
There are social problems, which are created by people who live in tent-ghetos and where solutions will not be found for many years. There are those who have become beggars overnight after being millionaires. There are jewellers who have lost everything and are unable to rebuild because they are in the hundred-metre zone. They are also unable to get a bank loan because they are in the hundred-metre zone.

One of the saddest and most humiliating things I have seen in Sri Lanka lately, was a former millionaire approaching a foreigner to ask for a few rupees since he did not qualify for a bank loan.

When the foreigner asked him what he could do, the man said, "Any help is deeply appreciated. I have nothing". Jerad is sad and so are most of us who have a conscience. Any rational person can see that this country does not have land to build houses for more than one million people. What is even more tragic is that some in Colombo tend to believe that all those who lived in the 100-metre buffer zone are shanty dwellers or have had illegal constructions. This argument is not told to the common man but only to those who dare to discuss the subject in English.

If one takes a walk along Galle Road starting from Galle Face Hotel, one can see many buildings within the 100 metres which are not shanty housing. The President's House is one. And all along Galle Road you find people who have lived there for generations, traditional houses built before independence and fisherfolk who have lived there for generations.

Many of us notice that this 100-metre buffer zone is done out of an emotional reaction and not based on rationality. If rationality is the issue, everyone knows that we are not safe in 105 metres. If urban planning is the case then it should be said so and not blamed on the tsunami.

Legislation
Since everyone knows that this rule was made in 1981 to protect the coastal areas, then it should be passed in Parliament. And if it is for coast conservation, then the law should apply to all. It would be pointless to punish those who have suffered so much from the tsunami. Let the UDA demolish all buildings within the 100-metre buffer zone in Sri Lanka. The law should be just and equal to every citizen of this country.

This is just a summary of what the coastal inhabitants of this country believe. They say this to us and to many others in various ways. They are traumatised and disillusioned. They have lost faith in this government and its policy makers. They also have no faith in other political parties since no one is walking around asking them what they really think. The UNP is only talking about commercial properties within the 100-metre buffer zone and the JVP, which claims to represent the revolution of the people seems to be deaf and dumb.

The suffering of the people is such that one cannot sleep at night. How can a tent dweller live in this monsoon weather and have a night of sleep? How can he recover from the trauma? If his house is not in the 100 metres, how can someone who earns a living in the 100-metre zone earn his livelihood? The people of mahajana pola, Galle (nearly 150) are waiting to start work and without government aid. And those who received stalls from the government in another building are those who had official stalls in the pola with a roof. All those who worked without a roof are not considered pola people. Some people say that they are tempted to steal or become criminals. In times of anarchy and chaos that is what happens.

It is because of this that Jerad started his walk on March 22, from Kirinda to Colombo, arriving at Galle Face on April 2 around midday. Jerad met hundreds of people on the way. He slept in Buddhist temples and in guesthouses when a temple could not be found. Our friends tell us that he has lost weight and that he is extremely touched by what he has seen. Jerad is one individual who cares about the suffering of our people.

Jerad's walk may be forgotten but what we should never forget is that our people should feel the suffering before foreigners feel the suffering of our own people. And those who make decisions from Colombo should take one day off to speak to someone who lives in a tent along the coast. They are not all shanty dwellers and if they turn out to be, they are also human beings as those who sleep in five-star hotels. One can only feel the suffering by listening to the people and not from guessing it.

Back to Plus