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2 January 2005
The cost of life
Massive international relief operations in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand are under way. With every passing day, the amount of private donations to charities and relief organisations focusing on the Asian tsunami disaster has been overwhelming. Some have remarked that the amount collected so far has already surpassed those collected in the aftermath of previous disasters. The previous record for the largest relief purse ever collected was during the Ethiopian famine in 1984 as the New York Times tells us and the current welling of generosity the world over will soon result in surpassing it. Countries too have been bidding in a competitive auction much as Colin Powell would like to deny it. The United States initially started with $15 million in response to the European Union's approximately $50 million and Australia's $28 million, then upped it marginally to $35 million, to which Democrat senator Patrick Leahy responded rather tartly that $35 million is what the United States spends every day before breakfast in Iraq, and finally raised the ante significantly to $350 million almost sure not to be surpassed in this final response to stinging criticism. However, Japan saw off the $350 million today and raised $500 million in return. As for corporate donations, Amazon did away with its elaborate and intrusive Welcome page and put up a simple appeal for donations to the American Red Cross with the guarantee that 100% of the donation would be channeled to Red Cross and 100% of that would go towards tsunami relief. Apple too abandoned its cutesy webpage and has instead posted a typically chic appeal and links to various prospective receiving organisations. Various other high-traffic sites like Yahoo and eBay filed away their tsunami relief contribution in harder-to-see places.Coverage on the tsunami disaster has continued to dominate the front pages of most media sources and remains a sticky headline on most online news sites and with George Bush declaring that the United States flag fly at high-mast through this week interest will sustain for at least till then. But soon afterwards, by the natural law of diminishing returns media coverage will reach saturation and start to wane and no doubt the donations will start to abate. Amazon will go back to its suggestions and recommendations and Apple to its iPods and iTunes. While in the first few days since its solicitation was put up Amazon collected nearly $10 million in the last two days that figure has edged up only by about $2 million. By no means does it make the sympathy expressed any less heartfelt but as the brown bodies from India and Indonesia start to recede into their own mainlands from the television screens of millions over the world, it is possible that their plight might be forgotten. While many now are of the opinion that the monetary response has been more than adequate I continue to believe that it is impossible to put a price tag on the thousands of futures lost and the millions of futures severely imperiled. It goes back to the same incredulity with which we may regard the Union Carbide settlement. The $475 million deal that the Indian government struck was merely an act of bargaining; a market equilibrium where both parties stayed satisfied. It was not and could not have been a satisfactory answer to the lost hopes of Bhopal.
While preliminary estimates for the reconstruction expenses put it at $14 billion there is nothing to account for the lost revenue in tourism -- one can safely assume that it will be years or decades before Phuket becomes the holidaying destination it was before last Sunday. How many of the surviving fishermen in Madras, Nagappattinam and Cuddalore will ever again ride their boats into the sea in anticipation of earning their morsels of grain? As their fears and destinies turn away from the sea and towards land, they must be apprehensive and skeptical of any chance of survival.
