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Two years after the September-11
events another disaster, this
time
caused by what the intelligentsia of our time calls nature, has
destroyed some of the favourite tourist attractions of the East. As a
result several of our most influential rulers and bankers have
announced the beginning of a new era, in which the economic measures
that have assured the misery and exploitation of the poor will be
derogated. Their well publicised philanthropy contrast with the
selfish mood reported in Washington hours before the Tsunami. On the
23rd of December Elizabeth Becker from The New York Times quoted some
administration officials who told her that the food aid budget for the
fiscal year that began Oct. 1 was at least $600 million less than what
charities and aid agencies would need to carry out current programs. As
a result organisation such as Catholic Relief Services had to cut back
programs in Malawi, Madagascar and Indonesia.
The
unprecedented G-8 solidarity that the tsunami victims have enjoyed in
the last few weeks are not mainly due to the attention that their
suffering has inspired in the Western media, but to the unusual
fact that their tragedy was shared by about three thousand citizens of
the most prosperous nations of the world. The tsunami waves were unable
to distinguish between natives and Europeans, credit-card holders and
underpaid workers, tourists and servants, orphans and child abusers.
Death imposed its overwhelming certainty over those who were told to
live in the richest and most secure nations of the world and those who
survived under the constant threat of hunger, humiliation and
uncertainty. Not surprisingly a British journalist caught in the
event described the attitude of the Asian Media as "stoic", for
she could hardly understand the resignation of a people too well
acquainted with death, and she, as many a journalist, failed to
remember the 138.000 death-toll of the 1991 Bangladesh tsunami.
As in the 1755
earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the city of Lisbon, several
writers have pointed out the possibility or impossibility of a
punishing God. These speculations, already discussed by Voltaire and
Rousseau, are more indicative of a growing sense of culpability amongst
Western journalists. For decades the coasts of Indonesia, Thailand and
Eastern India have been denounced as prominent centres of child
prostitution and pornography. According to the 2004 US State
Department report on human trafficking, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and
Thailand are all "source, transit, and destination countries for
persons trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation". Andrea
Bertone, the director of HumanTrafficking.org. reports that "in these
areas there may be child sex tourists who either come on holiday and
are situational child sex tourists, or either they are pedophiles who
actually may live in the area". Just days after the tsunami a
UNICEF official reported getting an unsolicited text message, asking
what type of child would be preferred.
Once again the universe has underlined our fragility. In vain we seem
to be great (Inutilmente parecemos grandes) writes the Portuguese poet
Fernando Pessoa, for in the face of destruction and decay we have
learnt to lament the certainty of death instead of celebrating
the miracle of living.
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